Death to Original Naming: Home For Plot Bunnies
by Death to Original Naming
Summary: Just as the title says, this is our place to vent random ideas that's been fogging our minds. Anything is up for adoption, just P.M us which one you want and it'll be done. Thanks for reading!
1. familiar of Zero: the hero

#1) Random Zero no Tsukaima Plot Bunny Attack~!

...

_'I am not a failure...'_

"Hurry up already Zero!"

_'I will succeed...'_

"What's with the hold up! Just fail already!"

_'Please... answer me'_

**"I, Louise Francoise de Blanc de la Valliere, in the name of the five great elements, call upon my divine, beautiful, wise and powerful servant, heed my summoning and-"  
**

_"Please-"_

**_"APPEAR!"_**

A violent magical explosion blew up the small space in the courtyard that was dedicated solely for familiar summonings. Smoke and dust was kicked up and blown towards the students near the summoning circle. Everyone except Louise, who was blown back from being so near the center of explosion, covered themselves from the smoke. Most raised their hands to cover their eyes, a blue haired girl hid under her dragon familiar's wing, a plump boy casts a spell to fight the dust back with wind. Louise, for her part, looked down to her knees as she sat at where she had landed, bangs covering a pair of watery and hollow eyes as she thought the most obvious thing that came to her mind.

_'I... failed again, didn't I?'_

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind picked up and carried the smoke and dust away. Louise heard an collective gathering of gasps coming from her fellow "classmates" and decided to looked up. Perhaps she accidentally injured one of the students with the explosions, that will only give them a better enough excuse to kick her out of the academy.

_'After all, who would want such a dangerous failure to be in this prestigious institute...'_

She felt a rush of despair rising from somewhere within her fragile heart when a human silhouette appeared in the smoke. The remainders of the dust clears up and Louise got a chance to examined the person that got caught within the accident that was her explosive failure. The person was a boy that seems to be around her age. He has brownish-red eyes and strawberry blonde hair (the same shade as Eleonore-neesama) that's tied up in a small ponytail. He stood in a commanding manner, with his chin tilted at a barely noticeable angle, and casts an analytical glare at everyone. As if they can actually feel him probing them, the students gave small quavers whenever his eyes brush by them.

_'His presence...his stance...it's... almost like mother's.'_

Louise's observation of the man already gave her a better opinion of him than the one she has of herself. She then took note of his outfit or rather, his uniform. He was wearing a long sleeved buttoned up shirt and black pants hidden under a cape like a regular student but he also had a few... additions. The most obvious add on was the sword at his waist hanging off a crooked belt. A second change was the extra metal leg and arm guards he had equipped on his body. The last was that his cape was not the black that was expected of the familiar summoning group nor was it the brown or gray of a lower classmate but a royal dark blue.

_'...Is he some kind of soldier? No, he's wearing the academy uniform, he must be a student...but then... why is he standing in the familiar summoning circle?'_

"Who are you?" She lets the question whispered past her mouth.

This seems to have caught the boy's attention as he turned his gaze towards her. She immediately stood up and unconsciously straighten her back while he scrutinize her.

_'Truly, he is just like mother...' _Was all she could think of passed the fog of nervousness the stranger conjured into her mind when he looks at her.

Professor Colbert got pass the crowd of students that were blocking his way to see the strange soldier student as well. He sensed something was off and tried to call the strange student's attention to himself but the student walked right pass him. The strange blonde student stopped in front of Louise before giving her what could only be called a glare. Louise couldn't do anything except stand there and receive his heated glare.

Suddenly, he spoke up. His voice cool and yet filled with power **"Pentagon of the five elemental powers, bless this one with strength and make me her familiar."**

All eyes widen as they heard the strange student's declaration. They only widened further when the strange student bowed down onto one knee and gave Louise a quick kiss on the lips. It was a peck at most and yet it was able to knock Louise into a confused stupor.

"Wha...bu...eh...ah...wha." Louise had no idea what to say. The student declared himself as her familiar? But a familiar can't be a human, much less a mage. It has never been done before. But then again, it's being done now. Is that even possible? What's happening?!

"Urg... So this is what it feels like to be on the other side." The student/ familiar grunted in pain as an familiar contract bonded itself onto the back of his hand. When it ended he pulled off the glove that covered the contract brand. he showed it to Louise and fixed a stern look at the stuttering girl.

"Greetings, my void contractor. I am known as Luis the Hero. Can I ask for the name of my noble master?" The strange student, Luis, gave Louise a smile that hauntingly reminds her of her other sister, Cattleya. Somewhere deep within her mind, she asked herself. Did mother and father ever mention anything about having a long lost son?

* * *

Challenge to put in the story!

*Luis and Louise are complete opposites of each others due to their different backgrounds and yet slightly similar due to their shared persona. Build wise, Louise is roughly five foot one inch tall while Luis is six foot one inch tall. Both have a strawberry blonde hair color, Louise leaning towards the strawberry part while Luis is leaning to the blonde part.

*Louise was raised under an extremely strict but still loving family. Because of the pressure of being the family's black sheep, she grew up to look at everything in a pessimistic viewpoint and is very soft spoken. Though she does have a mean temper, she doesn't do much with it except for letting it fuel her pessimistic outlook in life and boost an occasional outburst.

*Luis was borne under a "commoner" family and quickly grew in ranks once he joined the army at a young age. His mother, father and two younger brothers died in a fire due to (insert your own ideas here). He is extremely outgoing and will immediately tell anyone what he thinks of them, through words or hurt. He, similarly to Louise, also has a mean temper.

*Louise is still a beginner void mage like the light novel portrayals but Luis is an accomplished Square class mage of all four main elements (discluding void of course) as well as being a damn good swordsman with Gandalf's blessing (or curse). Potential comedy can be additionally added by mentioning that in the other world (Luis' world) Kirche is the beginner void mage that summoned a commoner.

*Any and all pairings are welcomed. Harem, single wife, reverse harem, loli, maids, twincest, complete dry spell, anything! Try it all! It's a field day for everyone! Just, try to keep it PG for the first few chapters. Build up something of a relationship or character before the bumping and thumping begins (if it's necessary).

*Have fun writing the story.


	2. Fate stay night: Magical Bro Shirou

#2) Fate/stay night Crossover Fate/kaleid liner prisma Illya plot bunny attack~!

It all happened in one instant. Two existence met, contemplated and accepted each other. Both existence, within a span of the time it takes for time to pass, agreed to coexists with each other and returned to 'their' body. One body, previously hosting only one existence, was completely remade in the next instance to hold two souls that are one. A body that was once that of a regular high school teenager's reforged itself into the body of a soldier and then returned itself into a teen's again. Skin tanned and hair bleached pure white for a moment's moment before returning to their normal reddish hue. In a moment that has no numerical value, two existence came together as one. There was no flash of light nor sudden burst of power to indicate the metamorphosis, just a tiny, almost untracable sound of shattering glass in the void. Without anyone's but a certain vampire's notice, the process completed and stayed.

-Change in perspective-

Emiya Shirou paused for a moment in ladling soup to bowl that one of his guardian/ maid had handed him. He blinked once and then continue to finish the action of pouring soup into the bowl. His guardian, who was standing by his side trying to reach some dishes in a cabinet, noticed the slight paused and asked

"Is something wrong Shirou?"

"...Nothing's wrong Sella. Here let me get that for you." Shirou smiled casually and puts down the bowl of soup down to reach for the plates that his guardian, Sella, couldn't reach. Handing the discs to her, he begins bringing the food that he had prepared for dinner out to the table. The white haired guardian follows shortly afterwards with the plates, bowls and eating utensils.

"Illya! Liz! The food's ready! Come and eat before it cools down!" Sella calls out to the living room where the second guardian, Liz, and their second charge, Illya, lie on the couch to watch an anime. Liz perked up and crawled out of the couch immediately after hearing the word food while Illya stayed to continue watching. Seeing her younger charge acting like this made Sella moans aloud about the taint of the world clutching at Illya's innocence.

Shirou chuckles at Sella's reaction and goes over to Illya. Contrary to his belief that his sister was being deeply enthralled into her anime, the little girl was paying little to no attention at all to her show and was more or less just staring into the direction of the television. A part of Shirou was pleasantly surprised that he was wrong while another part quickly did an analysis of the expression on his sister's face. _'She's contemplating upon whether or not she should be doing something'_ he notes mentally to keep an eye on her as he reaches out to tap her on the shoulder. She didn't respond to it or his second tap. He decided to then give her a shake on the shoulder which seemed to have brought her thoughts back to reality.

"Huh? Wha?" She confusedly looks around and sees him holding her shoulder. She blushes lightly and looks at him. "Is there something wrong onii-chan?"

"It's dinner time Illya." He smiles sweetly at her as he turns off the television. "Liz and Sella are waiting."

"Ah, right." The middle school girl jumps to her feet and quickly runs to the dinner table to join the rest of her housemates.

As everyone sat down and got comfortable, they simultaneously clap their hands together as one and said "itadakimasu". They then reached out their own chopsticks and started eating the food made by the eldest Emiya son. Liz quickly demolishes her first bowl of food and hands it to Shirou for a refill before he even got in a second bite of his own. Sella happily eats the well prepared dinner while pushing back the various thoughts of how inferior her cooking is compared to her charge. Illya slowly and distractedly worked to finish her bowl which causes Shirou to worry if there might've been something wrong with her health. A part of him quickly supplied that there is nothing noticeably wrong with the girl's physical condition but worry he still did.

Halfway into dinner, Illya starts glancing at the clock every few minutes. She picks up the pace of her eating and finishes as Liz got her fifth bowl. She then excuses herself saying that she wants to go to bed early. Shirou didn't buy it but lets any thought of what to do to after dinner. While clearing the dishes from the table, he reinforces his ear enough to listen in on Illya. As he suspected, the girl was pacing around in her room to stave off time before she has to go to wherever had her distracted for so long. He does not remember the cause of this but he has a slight suspicion that it might have to do with what knocked him out at the bath yesterday (he's sure as heck that it wasn't a rock).

As he finishes washing the dishes, he hears Illya finally making her move. The sound of the window sill opening and closing with a distinct sound of shuffling cloth in between was more than enough to tell him what his sister was planning. Drying his hands and excusing himself to his room as well, Shirou left his two guardians/ maids to their own business. He quickly and silently walks out to his room and passes it to reach his sister's. He knocks twice out of manners more than cluelessness and walks in as his sister jumps off the window ledge... in a magical girl costume.

_'Huh... when'd that happen?'_ For the first time in the hour of the acceptance, Emiya Shirou stopped his mental multitasking and stared. The part of him that was the 'No name hero' recovered first and jumps out of the bedroom's window to follow his sister. It took him a minute to catch up to her and another to maintain a far enough distance to (hopefully) keep out of her sensing range while still being able to see her with reinforced eyes.

Illya stopped at an open field in an academy that he recognized as her school. Decisively walking to a certain location, she met with a familiar and yet unfamilair Tohsaka Rin. He'd only managed to hide in the shadow of a nearby building before Illya held out her magical wand and enacted a ritual. Both Rin and Illya disappeared within the ritual circle. This was a shocker. From what he saw, his sister had just completed a high level transition ritual to god knows where without much, if any, prior preparations.

_'Did she notice me following her?... No, she gave no outward signs that she has noticed anything following her. But then what is she planning on doing here?'_ The no name hero pondered on his sister's plan while the high school boy walks to the spot that he last saw the two girls. Careful examination shown nothing suspicious or out of place, not even a mark. He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard two pairs of footsteps coming up from behind him. Before he could do anything to hide himself, the owner of the footsteps spots him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Was the question of one of the two behind him. It was high pitched and commanding, probably the leader of the two. The no name hero/highschooler turned around with a disarming smile on his face. The no named hero recognized his old friend Luvia standing dominantly with her hands folded under her chest and back straight up. She has on a strange combination of a blue dress and combat boots underneath. Besides her was a girl clad in a questionable purple and black leotard/ magical girl dress. The girl looks to be about Illya's age and is holding a wand that was conceptually made like Kaleidostick Ruby. The no name hero took note that the girl widened her eyes in recognition while the highschooler judges that he doesn't recognize the girl. Before anything else could be read though, the girl closed off her emotions and puts on a well worn mask of indifference.

Quickly grasping onto something, the no name hero took in all the facts that he had gathered and made something up. Rin and Luvia are present with potentially two kaleidostick, if the magical girl dresses are anything to go by, so that implies that Zeltrech is involved somehow. The four girls met up in this exact spot so it must have some importance. Maybe a test or punishment of some sort that Zeltrech has sent them on? Mentioning the name Zeltrech might yield further results.

"Hello Edefelt-sama, I have come here under the orders of Zeltrech-sama to look after yours and Tohsaka-sama's task." He lied through the skin of his teeth with a smile that has been trained for years. Luvia pales and pulls back into a slightly guarded pose. He gathered that she probably messed up her mission somehow. It was probably not that far off of a guess, seeing as how her relationship with Rin is... explosive.

[Hello, I am kaleidostick Saphire, may I ask for your identity as well as reference from Grand Marshal Zeltrech?] The magical stick asks politely as it refers to Shirou in place of the now slightly less confident Luvia.

"Certainly, you may call me Shirou and here's the letter that Zeltrech-sama has sent me a while ago." He reaches into his jacket to trace a letter that was written by Zeltrech for a rather vague task in his past "life" and handed it to Luvia who shakily accepts the parchment. She only pales more and her shaking became more prominent. Shirou grins inwardly when the curly haired blonde declares that it was in Zeltrech's handwriting and gave the letter back.

"Can I ask for a status report? Zeltrech-sama sent me here rather urgently and I'm at a lost as to what I'm supposed to be monitoring."

[Ah yes, the mission that was assigned to us by Grand Marshal Zeltrech is to collect the stray class cards from the remnants of the disbanded holy grail in Fuyuki. Our coordinator, Lord El-Melloi II, sent Luviagelita-sama and Rin-sama to partake in this mission. However, due to circumstances that you will be briefed of later, Miyu-sama here and another wielding my sister, Kaleidostick Ruby, is now in charge of the mission.] Kaleidostick Sapphire momentarily paused and a clock flashed on its hexigonal star. [In fact, we should hurry. The mission time is five minutes ago and we are late. Please gather up so that Miyu-sama can open a gate to the mirror world.]

Neither the no name hero nor his high school equivalent could have process anything of what was said by the magical stick. Its wielder stepped towards him with Luvia following behind before raising the stick high in the air. A large magical circle, similar to Ilya's appeared underneath his feet and Saphire's voice echoed

[Two meter radius, Mirror Road formation. Opening path to the other world.]

The world was flipped and reversed before flipping once more. As the no named hero immediately steadied himself, a chill ran through his spine. The scent of raw blood filled his nose and he immediately snapped his neck towards the direction of the scent. His eyes widened. Right there, high in the sky, was a Pegasus rushing at extreme speed towards the ground while dodging magical bullets being shot at it. It's rider, though having a different, more blackened outfit, was definitely the first servant Saber took out in his Holy Grail War, Rider.

"A Noble Phantasm!?" Luvia whispers in awed horror while staring at the steed.

[Miyu-sama!] "Sapphire, class card Lancer: Include!" Besides him, the magical girl drew out a card from her thigh holder and puts it in front of Sapphire. Another rush of magic bursts from the stick and a red barbed lance took place of it. Shirou took his eyes off of the pure white Pegasus and it's darkened rider to glance in bafflement at yet another miracle happening right next to him. The magical girl pulls back her arm and aimed at the Pegasus rider before throwing the lance and screams **"GAE BOLG!"**

The lance disappeared as it left her hand and reappeared in the place of Rider's heart. Or at least, it was supposed to. The pegasus, in it's rights as a Divine Beast, pulled off a miracle only it can. Turning it's very body into pure power and light, it timed the moment when the Laws of Casualty enacted itself upon its rider and twisted. Sacrificing itself for it's rider, the beast took the heart rendering stab. Before it's physical body returned however, it looked at the one who has caused its rider to summon it in the first place. The girl who has cause it and its rider to feel this unimaginable rage. And the winged horse charged.

Miyu and Luvia widened their eyes at the impossibility that happened before them while Shirou followed the steed's path of attack and almost gave in to a heart attack. The pure force of the divine beast was being aimed at his most beloved sister, who was trying her very best to stave off her foe with beams of raw magical energy. Without any thoughts or doubt, the no name hero clocked his trigger and let loose the might of his own magic against the one who wants to harm his beloved sibling.

"Trace On!" A familiar black dao sword with red vein-like hexagonal patterns appeared into the world and landed into his open palm. "Trace: OVEREDGE!" The black sword bloomed in shape and size. What was once a pristine sword of pure black metal burst into a winged shaped contraption easily thrice its original height and much deadlier than its original shape.

Swinging his reinforced arms, he threw the Broken Phantasm straight into the general direction of his sister and watched as the sword's ability did its magic as he traced a pure white dao into his palm. With the momentum from his throw gathered together with the force of attraction from it's ability, the black Broken Phantasm made a sharp turn and slammed into the path of the Pegasus.

Of course, he didn't expect his high B-rank attack to do much, just merely enough to slow down the target. And slowed the target it did. The beast collided with the blade and the winged dao stalled the creature of pure energy for a wide enough margin of a moment for Shirou to take a protective stance in front of his beloved sister.

As the black dao finally bursts into a hundred sharp feathers and the beast continued its charge, Shirou, with both his minds overworking as one to protect Illya, raises his hand and summon the strongest shield in his Reality Marble **"RHO AIAS!"**

A seven petaled iridescent flower blooms from his outstretched hand and crashes with the phantasmal being's rush. The impact easily crushes two petals and quickly works on the third and fourth before slowing down at five and six and finally coming to a full stop at the the seventh.

As the white beast disappears back to where it came from, its rider jumps off it with weapons pulled back and ready to strike. Shirou, who had already dropped to his knees from the recoil of Rho Aias, defiantly glares at the black specter with resolute eyes.

"...Trace: OVEREDGE!" Using whatever momentary strength he has left within his beaten body, he raises his remaining weapon into the specter's path. Of course, the black spirit had enough common sense to parry the attack but it did nothing about the sword's ability.

SHCH! SHCH! SHCH! SHCH! SHCH!

A barrage of black steel feathers slams into the spirit's unprotected back and nails it down to the ground, just in front of the kneeling hero.

"..." Finally getting a good look at the downed and snarling spirit, Shirou frowns deeply. As he had suspected, the spirit really is the Rider that he knew or rather, another partial incarnation from the throne of heroes. Unlike the one he knew however, this one is corrupted beyond saving and is still struggling to attack. The same and yet so different, Shirou frowns as he struggles to his feet and raises his white feathered sword.

"...This is not how you should be, please return to the throne of heroes as your true self..." With a sad frown, he lowers his blade and watches it decapitate someone who he had once called ally. He gave a brief moment of silence as the specter dissolves into black mist and another before dissolving his own weapons. Straightening his slightly hunched back, he turns around towards his two protectee and smiles charmingly.

"Illya, it's past your bedtime now. As a punishment for sneaking out in the middle of the night, no desert for a week."

"Eh? Onii-chan? Wha-? Wait, no desert? WHA-?!" Illya adorably stutters within her pink dress and Shirou couldn't help but make his charming smile more genuine. He's so glad that he's managed to keep his family safe.

* * *

Challenge to put in the story!

*After living a life as a hero, our no name hero accepted death with open arms as he is unjustifiably trialed and put on death row by someone he saved. Though he accepted death without complaints, he still had some regrets. The main one being that he couldn't have been there for the ones he loved/ ones he considers family and will never be able to again.

*Make a completely new route for the no name hero that encompasses parts of Fate, UBW and Heaven's Feel. The text from above has already hint at the grail having something to do with the transfer, made Rider an ally, Illya being his sister and Rin (and by some default, Shirou) knowing more about Kaleidoscope than most others.

*For comedy relieve, make Shirou trace Ruby and see what happens. He already knows the structure of the tool and is fully capable of making a slightly degraded version completed with newer and quirkier attitude, completely hellbent on making fourth wall breaking one liners. Magical Bro: Shirou has never been done before, wink wink nudge nudge.

*Instead of Excaliburing the ever loving crap out of everyone, try to make some innovative ideas for the way Shirou can fight besides the usual: Kanshou and Byakuga - Fatal injury - Glare down and monologue - More Kanshou and Byakuga- Random noble phantasm to buy time/word count (sometimes optional) - EXCALIBUR!

*Have fun writing the story.


	3. Pokemon: OC Guy

#3) random Pokemon plot bunny attack~!

"HAYTHAN R. SAPH! GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANCE!" A brown haired woman loudly calls out for her son's presence. She begins tapping her foot on the hardwood floor and glared at the stairs as she hears shuffling sounds from upper floor.

"What is it ma?" A similarly brown haired boy peeked downwards from the top of the stairs and asks.

"We've just moved here yesterday and you're already stuffed up inside your room playing that game system of yours! At least go out and greet your neighbors first!" The woman scolded her wayward son for his horrible attitude towards human communication.

"Playing? I haven't even unpacked the boxes with my clothes yet to be playing." The boy gives his over exaggerating mother a raised eyebrow as he walks down the stairs. He does admit that he spends more of his time inside than out but he still feels that his mother is too hyperbolic about it sometimes.

"Yes and you can go "unpacked" after you at least go greet our neighbors." She huffs as she pushes her son out the door. At this point, she feels that any excuse is a good enough excuse to give her wayward son a breath of fresh air and some sunlight.

"Wait wha-" Was all Haythan could've utter as his "beloved" mother slams the door shut in behind his back. He even hears the audible click of the locks being put in place without even turning his back around.

"...Seriously?" Staring at the shut door for a few moments, Haythan sighs aloud and began trudging to one of his neighbors. It wasn't like there was much people living in Littleroot town anyways. The "town" is more or less a small cluster of houses that happens to be close to each other. It, along with Oldale town, is considered one of the more rural area outside of Petalburg city's city limit. There were only five houses and a Pokemon lab in this town. It's a quaint little place really.

"Hmmm, do I knock? I don't see a doorbell..." Haythan mutters to himself as he reaches the front entrance of one of his neighbor's house. Not exactly sure what to do, he knocked the door and waited. After a while and hearing no answer, he knocked again to be sure. Still not having heard any response, the brunette decides that the house owner is elsewhere and decides to leave it at that. The boy turned and started walking while he considers his options. One is that he go home and wait for his mother to open up the door (the most likely option). Two is to visit his neighbor (the least likely option seeing as he's having second thoughts). Three is to take a look around town (not very likely seeing as Littleroot town literally is just buildings and forest).

"Ah, excuse me!" Before he could make his decision, someone called out to him to catch his attention. Turning towards the voice, he sees a lanky man in a lab coat making his way towards him. He gives the man a polite bow and a look that implies if there was anything he can help the man with.

"Ah yes, sorry to bother you young man but have you um, seen Professor Birch anywhere?" The lab coat bearing man fixes his glasses as he asks Haythan, he seems to be lightly sweating and he looks like he was slightly panicking.

"No, I haven't. Is he missing?" The boy gave a negative shake of his head and asked the man a followup question.

"Yes, the Professor has been gone for a while and some... volatile experiments are being conducted. We need him to come quickly or it could be bad." The panicky man starts looking around, as if hoping to catch a glimpse of the missing professor.

"...Would you like me to help find him?" Seeing the man panic so much, Haythan couldn't help but feel like he should extend some help. He might as well aid the man, he got nothing better to do anyways.

"Will you? Thank you very much! If you find him, please tell him to go back to the lab ASAP." The assistant gives Haythan a brief smile before running off to another part of town to find the wayward professor. Figuring that the assistant has the town covered, Haythan trudged into the forest to attempt to find the professor.

...

Navigating his way through the forage, he occasionally sees a zigzagoon and a wurmple. After around ten minutes of aimless wandering he hears a yelp and heavy footsteps. He walks over to a cliff-like area and stares down to the sight of a man being chased around by a small poochyena.

"...Hey! Are you Professor Birch?" Seeing as he has a lab coat on, Haythan yelled out his question. The man rolled under one of the small pup's flying tackle and looked around. Meeting eyes with Haythan, the man let loose a relieved smile and yelled back

"Oh thank the lord someone has come. Boy, can you help me out? This poochyena has been chasing me down all morning!" The man immediately flings himself to the right as said poochyena makes another lunge for him. "There should be a bag nearby! A pokeball should be inside, can you release the pokemon within to help me?" Professor birch attempted another roll but the poochyena refused to fall for it again and quickly lowered it's head to bite into the professor's billowing coat. Effectively stopping its momentum, the pup releases its jaws and fell onto the professor. It proceeded to giving the man some very strong bites.

"AhH! Hurry, help!"

"...Professor, just pick it up. The poochyena is not even an eighth of your size." Haythan deadpans at the rolling professor.

"I can't! It's too strong! Arg! It's biting even harder!"

"Really? I thought it only knew tackle at level five."

"This isn't the time for contemplation. HELP!"

"..." Still keeping his deadpan towards the downed professor, Haythan grabbed the bag and slid down the cliff. He walked to the struggling man and reaches out to the poochyena. Grabbing the canine pokemon by its scruff, he lifted it up as it lets go of its jaw. It struggled for a few seconds against Haythan's firm grip before slumping and giving up its endeavor in favor of giving him some teary puppy dog eyes. Haythan gave it a deadpan stare before putting his attention back at the recovering professor.

"Ah, thank you for the help lad. The poochyena has been chasing me very aggressively since this morning. Anyways, is there anything I can help you with? You seem to be looking for me right?" The professor dusted himself and gave Haythan a wide friendly grin.

"...An lab assistant asked me to tell you to immediately get back to the lab, something about volatile experiment." Haythan informed the professor. The man looked at him in confusion for a moment before something seemed to click and his eyes grew in panic.

"AH! The experiment!" The man quickly runs towards the direction of the lab. Pausing for an instance, he turned around to tell Haythan "Oh, can you please meet me at the lab later? I would like to discuss something with you." With that said, the man once again rushes off.

"..." Haythan looks at the man's back until he disappears before looking down at the pup and the forgotten pack that was still in his hands. "...What am I supposed to do with you?" He asks the poochyena. The gray pup gave what looks like a shrug of its shoulder and licked his hand. He stared at it some more before sighing. He shouldered the pack and shifted the pup into a more comfortable position in his arms. The poochyena didn't seem to mind as it snuggled into Haythan's hold.

Haythan took his time walking back into town and by the time it took him to reached the outer edge of the town, half an hour has passed. The poochyena in his arms gave a small yawn as it moved into a more comfortable position. He looked at the lab's direction and was alarmed to find a faint hint of smoke rising from it. He hastened his steps and hoped that nothing bad happened to the professor or his lab.

The lab looked like it took a fire blast to the knee. Part of it was lightly burnt and smoking while another part was missing the wall altogether. There was lab assistants carrying fire extinguishers around and spraying stray embers that were missed. Haythan caught sight of the panicky lab assistant from earlier and made his way to the man. The man noticed the boy walking towards him and waved.

"Hello boy, thanks for helping find the professor earlier."

"...Guess I was too late." Hayton gestures at the missing part of the lab.

"Hahaha, surprisingly no. You made it just in time. If the professor was any latter... well, that wouldn't have been the only problem." The man looks at the hole as well. "So what can I do for you boy?"

"The professor told me to come by earlier, do you know where he is?"

"He wants to talk to you hmm?" The assistant gives the poochyena in Haythan's arm a brief glance before pointing towards the lab entrance. "The professor should be sorting through some files in the lab. Look around, you're bound to find him. Don't go blowing up anything else alright?" The lab assistant walked off after giving Haythan the instructions.

Haythan followed the man's advice and walked into the lab. It was a mess. Papers and documents were strewn everywhere: on the floor, on the wall, on the table, on the chair and even on the cactus in the corner. The boy did his best to not walk on the any (important looking) documents as he navigates the surprisingly snug lab. He found Professor Birch in the far end of the lab, spraying a patch of fire with his extinguisher. The professor heard Haythan's footsteps and turned around.

"Ah, there you are lad. Sorry for the mess, the experiment ended... with a bang. Come, make yourself at home." The man led Haythan towards the lounge area that had two three person couches, a wide coffee table and a few spare folding chairs. Sitting himself down and chucking the empty fire extinguisher to the sides, the professor turns his friendly demeanor towards the poochyena in Haythan's arms.

"Ah, so you plan on taking in the pup huh? Are you a trainer, boy?" The professor reached out to pat the pup but it growled at him, causing him to pull back lest he gets bitten. Haythan half halfheartedly pets the poochyena his arms to calm it down while he thought of an answer. He is eleven so he's qualified to become a trainer but he never really applied for his trainer card. Travelling around and collecting badges didn't appeal to him. Also, considering the extra work that is needed to keep up with the minimum requirement for having a trainer card really irked him. His mother was a trainer when she was in her teens but her passion for pokemon training never rubbed off him. He was neutral about being a trainer.

"...No, I'm not a trainer." In the end he told the professor that he wasn't a trainer. He knew why the professor asked. While a non-trainer are allowed to keep pokemons as pets, it is not allowed for underage non-trainers to keep uncaptured wild pokemon in their household. If he wanted to keep the poochyena, he was going to have to do one of two things, get a trainer card or asks his mother (who's still considered an active trainer) to capture the gray pup for him.

"Hmm, is that so... would you like me to make you a supervised trainer card?" The professor rubbed his stubble and asked the boy who had bonded with the particularly vicious looking poochyena from earlier.

"A supervised trainer card?" Haythan gives the professor a blank and confused look.

"Yes, it is the card that most underaged trainers get when they go on their journey, whether they know it or not. Along with the pokedex, their trainer card keeps track of where they are at all times and well... supervises them. Usually it is either the professor that gives them their first pokemon or their parents that are doing the supervision. I can make one for you so that you can keep the poochyena if you'd like. You don't have to journey around, collecting badges either." The professor explains as he pulls a laptop out of nowhere and opens up a program for Haythan to see. It showed a boy around Haythan's age with a mudkip and a seedot under his name, Brendan.

"So what do you say? It can be done immediately and there's no repercussion for owning pokemons afterwards." The professor looks into the boy's eyes. The boy seemed to have thought about the matter and nodded his consent. The professor widened his grin and pulled up the registration page for the boy to fill out. Five minutes later and the boy, Haythan, held his trainer ID in his hand.

"Alrighty then, here's a pokeball for your poochyena." The professor rummages a box under the coffee table and pulled out a basic red and white pokeball which he handed to Haythan. Haythan took the pokeball before looking down at the pup that was laying sedately on his lap. The pup gave a mouth gaping yawn before looking at Haythan and tilting its head. It then noticed the pokeball in his hand and shifted so that its forehead is directly pointing at Haythan. Haythan answered its initiative by tapping the ball onto its forehead. The poochyena glowed an ethereal red before getting sucked into the ball. The ball only shook once in the boy's hand before stopping all motion, to show that the being inside is captured. He clicked the little mound on the middle of the ball to release the poochyena and it appeared laying on his lap, like it was never gone.

"Congratulations! You now have your first pokemon." The professor patted Haythan's shoulder to show his applause. He then looked at the clock and whistled aloud. "Well will you look at that, it's already lunchtime. Lad, shouldn't you be going home?"

"I think I should." Haythan stood up and walked towards the lab entrance with the professor following him to see him off. "Thank you for helping me, have a nice day." Haythan bowed his head to the professor.

"No, I should be the one to thank you." The professor ruffled Haythan's hair while still keeping his goofy grin. "If you ever feel like becoming a trainer, just show up to the lab and I'll get you all sorted up okay?"

"Yes professor, thank you." With that finished, Haythan leaves the lab to go in the direction of his house. The poochyena that was surprisingly subdued in his arms gave him a lick to get his attention. He looked at it and it gently pushed its paws against his arms. Figuring that it wanted to walk on its own, Haythan lowered the pup to the ground and it gave a happy sounding yip. Haythan slowly walked back to the house with his poochyena running around like it was hyped on sugar.

...

When got closed enough to the house, he saw that there was a note tacked on the door. Getting closer to pluck the letter, he realized that it was addressed to him.

Letter:

Dear Haythan, my beloved son.

I heard from earlier that you've decided to get your trainer ID. You have no idea how happy I was to hear the news. When you turned ten a year ago and never mentioned it, I thought you had no interest in the art of pokemon training. Then when you started to shut yourself inside your room, I thought that you might've took a turn for the worse. Now hearing that you've shown an interest, I cannot be more happy. I called father right away and he suggested that we should finally take our well waited honeymoon. We will be in Kanto and its beautiful beach for a few weeks, maybe a moth or two. Don't worry, I've prepared the house to block up all intruders, the locks are all changed and the windows are bullet-proofed. Nothing will be going in if I'm not there. I've sent the pack with your essentials to Professor Birch so that he can start your journey. Remember to change to clean underwears~!

Love, mom.

Haythan stares incredulously at the letter before reading it again to make sure that he was reading it right. After three go overs, he confirmed that his mother essentially kicked him out of the house so that he could get some exercise while she and father are off to do whatever they planned on doing. Groaning at his mother's antic, he face-palmed his face. Poochyena, who climbed on to his shoulder at some point of the letter reading, licked his face and yipped cutely to cheer him up. Folding up the letter and pushing it into the deepest crevices of his pocket, Haythan began his trudge back to the lab once more.

He walked into the lab just as Professor Birch pulled out a large pan of vegetarian lasagna from a microwave. Smelling something extremely delicious, Haythan's stomach made itself be known and the professor turns around to a stoic Haythan. They stared at each other for a moment before the professor lifted up the pan and said "Want some? Your mom left it at the front door." The lasagna was delicious, even poochyena like it.

Once they finished their plates and packed away the leftovers, the professor listens to Haythan's story. It ended with the professor sweat-dropping and giving the boy an awkward shoulder pat.

"Well then, I guess you are going on a journey no matter what huh? C'mon, follow me." The man chuckles at the boy's fate. He then stood up from his couch and led the boy to his main work area. He walked up to an old and worn computer and typed in something. The capsule next to the computer opens up and it gave access to a red device and a pokeball.

"Ahem, congratulations on starting your journey young trainer. I am professor Birch yada yada yada blah blah blah, some motivational speech. You get the gist." The professor gave a lopsided grin as he slacks off on one of his main duties. "Here take this, it's supposed to be your first pokemon." He threw the pokeball inside the capsule at Haythan.

"Huh? First pokemon? But I already have poochyena" Haythan questions the professor while poochyena yips in agreement with its trainer.

"Hehehe I know, but if it was done regularly, you'd get your first pokemon from me. If it was done regularly, I would also have had two others for you to choose from but they were already picked a few days ago. Because the beginner pokemons are hatched from eggs, I was planning on releasing this one to it's natural habitats but then you came along." Professor Birch explains to Haythan.

"So this is one of the three beginner pokemons you give out?" Haythan looks at the pokeball before giving the professor a look that asks if it's okay to release the creature inside. The professor grins and gives him the thumbs up. Pressing the button on the ball, Haythan releases a green pokemon, treecko. The little treecko looks around before meeting eyes with Haythan and nodding. It walked on its bipedal to the boy and climbed up to his shoulder where it comfortably sat.

"Good, it seems she likes you too. First poochyena, now treecko, maybe you are meant to be a trainer after all. Here's a pokedex, some pokeballs and the backpack that your mother left for you." Professor Birch hands Haythan each of the necessary items for his journey before standing back and grins at the boy. "Now before you go, is there anything else you need to know?"

"...Besides the basic functions of being a trainer ID and keeping track of pokemons, does the pokedex do anything else?"

"The pokedex has many functions besides the two you mentioned. It can estimate the level of Pokemon, list downs moves that your team knows, give information on other opponents and their battle style if you synch up with their pokedexs and simulates battles as well. Their are also other side functions but you can find that out later."

"The pokedex records level? What is that?"

"Yes. It uses a store of information to calculate the level of the pokemon it's pointed at. A well grown and experienced pokemon would be a higher level than a newly hatched immature one after all. Most experienced trainers have their teams in the forty to sixties range while champions and elite fours are rumored to have eighties to beyond one hundreds."

"Beyond one hundred?"

"The store of data can only calculate so far. After a certain level, there becomes rare to no pokemons specimens to examine in order to gather the necessary data. Most call this point the one hundredth level. While there are specimens whom have exceeded the hundred limits, there are a handful that can be studied. Those that are above level one hundreds are shown to be level one hundred on the pokedex. Needless to say, this is a small problem that won't be fixed anytime soon."

"...Still, this is incredibly useful..." Haythan looks at the small device in his hand in awe. He looks back at the professor and asks "So what do I do now?"

"You can try traveling around and collect a team or you can choose to fight a gym." The professor gives two of the most obvious choice. "I would suggest you go to Petalburg City, though it holds the fifth gym in the normal circuit, it is also a beginner zone. The gym leader there, Norman, is a man who will gladly help any beginner trainer in need. Visit around and get a feel of being a trainer before you go and challenge Roxanne, the first gym leader in the circuit." Professor Birch grins and gives well hone advice to the beginner before him.

"I see, Petalburg City is a day's walk away if I remember correctly." Haythan attempts to pull up a map in his mind and failed spectacularly.

"Hahaha, just follow the road and it'll work out." Professor Birch gives the boy a uproarious laugh and pats him on the back, slightly towards the lab's entrance. "Now stop gally gagging here boy, might as well start while the light of day is still here. Oldale town shouldn't take more than a four hours walk, better go now before it gets too late."

"Ah right, thank you professor." Haythan follows the professor's advice and runs out the lab with poochyena hot on his heels. The professor drops his grin as he became the only person in the lab and looked at where the boy last was. The man smiles warmly and whispered "Good luck lad." before going back to his work.

* * *

(2nd hour of the journey)

"Where the heck am I?!" Haythan ruffles his hair in frustration as he looks at the map on the ground for the hundredth times in the past two hours. He would've used the pokedex to figure his location but he quickly found out that Leaf (the newly christened treecko) had more luck at understanding the complex piece of machinery. It was only thanks to the work of her and Allen (the obedient poochyena) that kept him on track so that he didn't get lost.

Currently, Haythan and Allen are sitting under the shades of a tree pouring over a super sized paper map that his mother packed for him. The map literally showed every main routes from Littleroot to Lilycove, it was that huge. Leaf was sitting on top of Haythan's shoulder and typing in whatever she was doing onto the pokedex. For some reason or another, Haythan has been hitting dead ends left and right after leaving Littleroot town. He has already ran into multiple wurmple nests and got enough string shots on him to make his own clothing company. He also ran into a poochyena den and got chased out by a colony of the little critters, Allen showed them how how alpha he really was and managed to rescue Haythan with only a few scratches. Their bites really was painful. Haythan made note to give Professor Birch an apology the next time they meet.

"Treecko treec treec ko treecko." Leaf starts pulling on Haythan's sleeve to get his attention and Haythan turned to see what his little green friend found (hopefully a complete map to Oldale town). The treecko jumped down his shoulder to show him something she found on his pokedex. He leaned in to see better and he found that it was a message. Gently, he plucked it away from Leaf and reads the text.

"Trainer Haythan, I have found the pokemon speech translating function. Would you be so kind as to use those opposable thumbs of yours to click the automatic oral translation function?" Haythan gave Leaf a shocked look to which she returns by wiggling her...paws? He answered the treecko's request and clicked the small ok button on the top left corner of the pokedex (Leaf's hand was too small to hold and click at the same time). Seeing her trainer fulfill her request, Leaf climbs back onto his shoulder and pulls the device close to her once more. She lets out a series of sounds in pokespeech and held it to Haythan's left ear.

"Testing testing one two three. Trainer Haythan is a directionally clueless moron~!" The treecko nods in approval at the effeminate voice that came out and Haythan glared at her for what she said. Allen perked his ears in surprise and took his attention off of the map. He walked closer to Haythan and Leaf and barked a series of sounds that the pokedex couldn't register due to distance. Leaf handed Haythan the device so hold to Allen and the gray pup barked his sentence a second time before looking at Haythan with starry eyes.

"Can master understand me now?" Haythan's eyes widens for the xth times that day at the sentence that came out. While he was sort of expecting that the pup to speak politely, he is less than expecting the voice that came out. The voice of a female. Turning to Leaf, he asked "Leaf, did you default the voice translator to a permanent female setting?"

"No, it translates with the voice that should naturally go with gender. Me and Allen should both sound like a female type of your race, trainer Haythan." Leaf looks at Haythan in confusion.

"Is something wrong master?" Allen jumps in as he... she sees Haythan's stare.

"Hey... Allen." Haythan begins.

"Yes master?"

"You're a female?"

"Of course, sir."

"...Then why'd you agree to the nickname Allen?"

"Any nickname master gives me is an appropriate nickname."

"...Your nickname is Alex from now on."

"As you wish, thank you master."

"...So Leaf, did you find a map to Oldale town?" Haythan decides to not bother with his pup's subservient attitude towards him as he felt it'll bring up another round of staring. Instead, he went back to the thing they should be focused on, getting the heck out of this accursed path and back into civilization.

"The pokedex has a electronic map but no gps function. It is about as useful as that piece of paper over there." Leaf points one of her digits towards the forgotten map on the ground. Haythan sighed deeply at the bad news and Alex licked his hand to comfort him.

Figuring that he might as well move instead of staying in one spot and do nothing, Haythan packed up the map and walked in a random direction. It didn't take more than four more minutes before Alex asserted his manliness by saving her master from a pack of mad zigzagoons.

* * *

(5th hour of the journey)

"Crap, there goes that last of the sunlight. Looks like we'll have to camp out today guys." Haythan slouches against a tree and wipes off his sweat. What was supposed to be a quick walk to a nearby town turned into a long five hour marathon involving him and just about every pokemon between here and Littleroot. Saying that he's exhausted would be an understatement. On the bright side, he has virtually no injuries on him as Alex, the greatest and most powerful pup in the world, protected him from anything and everything that could harm him (except for himself).

Pulling out a small stove burner, two bowls, a few cans of soup and a pot from his backpack, he quickly prepared dinner. With the soup heating up, he unrolled his sleeping bag and settled it near the foot of a nearby tree. When the soup steamed and finished, he poured it into the two bowls for Leaf and Alex and ate the rest straight from the pot himself.

They ate their meals in relative silence. Leaf offered to wash the dishes at a nearby stream afterwards and Alex charged herself with finding dry wood to use as fuel. Haythan decided to try his hands on making a fire the old fashion way. It didn't even take two minutes for him to give up and throw in a burnt match.

By the time he and Alex had a steady fire going, Leaf came back to the makeshift camp with fresh berries for desserts. They ate it with different expressions. Leaf quickly chomped up most of the bitter Rawst berries with enthusiasm and glared at the Aspear berries with great disdain. Alex cherished the Pecha berries and ate it as if it was the most amazing thing in the world while gladly finishing off Leaf's Aspears. Haythan ate a few juicy Oran berries and mentally made notes of his team's likes and dislikes.

When they finished eating, Haythan packed everything up save for the sleeping bag. He feed the fire with some more fuel and crawled into the bag and zipped it up. Alex crawled onto his stomach area and curled up there after finding the part with the littlest lumps. Leaf jumped onto the tree the sleeping bag resides under and lay on one of the branch. Simultaneously, all three yawned as one and drifted off to sleep with a "goodnight".

* * *

(2nd day of the journey, 6th hour)

"Yip! Yip! Grrrr yip!" "Master! Master! Wake up!"

"Treec treeko tree!" "Trainer Haythan, it's best if you awaken."

"...Ughhh, whata ya doing being so noisy this morni-" Haythan woke up to the sound of his pokemon's (Alex's) loud yelling being translated by his pokedex. Since he isn't much of a morning person, he prefers to stay in bed til the sun is well up in the sky. It's not that he wakes up late, it's just that it takes time for his mind and body to start functioning properly. This time he would make an exception. Before him was a crowd of pissed off pokemons he's sure he's never seen... Correction, before him was a crowd of pissed off pokemons that he managed to somehow or another pissed off yesterday. He had hoped that Alex's amazing alphaness had warded them off but it looks like it only made them plan better (if crowding up and attacking in superior numbers were a good strategy).

"...Run!" Effectively jumping onto his feet, Haythan reaches out his arm to grab the backpack by his side and waddled off as quickly as possible from the crowd of angry pokemon (while still in his sleeping bag no less). Leaf used her tail to pound away a few wurmples that chased after him before jumping onto his shoulder as he (surprisingly efficiently) waddles off. Alex took guard and blocked the rest off, giving a resolute bark in Haythan's direction. Haythan briefly looked back as his heroic pup gave a mad grin, baring all its fang, and charged at the mob of angry pokemons. Giving the pup a silent prayer for luck, he went back to his waddling with Leaf jumping on and off his shoulder to pound away the occasional speedy zigzagoons that manages to bypass Alex's counter-rush.

When they got far enough for any pursuers to be lost, Haythan sheds his uncomfortably warmed sleeping bag and leans his back against a random tree to calm his breathing. Leaf stayed on his shoulder the whole time to keep a vigilant lookout. Nothing happened as he finally calms down the erratic heartbeat that came from the sudden exertion. He hears a rustle in a bush and turned to see if it was Alex coming back from her epic battle against the hundred enemies.

Leaf stiffened on his shoulder but before he could say or do anything, she shot off from her support to the spot of the rustling. A silvery gray streak shot out from the rustling thickets and headed straight for Leaf as well. Leaf, in a show of great flexibility, fluidly bends her body to add momentum to her tail before pounding the silver streak head on. The force of their strikes make a loud "Bam!" before rebounding on the other. Leaf flew straight back into Haythan's chest while the mysterious silver streak disappeared past a few trees.

"Leaf, what was that?" Haythan confusedly asks while looking back and forth between his pokemon, who's caressing her tail, and the mysterious streak in the thickets.

"Treeck treecko tree ko ko..." "A hard enemy, it felt like hitting a rock..." The treecko narrowed her eyes and warily looked at the location where she last seen her foe. The bush from the far left side of the last location rustled and the silvery gray streak appeared, heading straight for the pair. Treecko was bending her knees to build up pressure for another collision when a darker gray streak passed them and striked the silver streak on the side. Like the last collision, the two forces rebounded from each other following a loud "Bam!" sound effect.

"Alex." Haythan calls out to his gray pup as she did four backflips in the air to land right in front of him. She yips at him as a greeting response and glared at their foe. The silvery gray streak, after losing its momentum to the crash with Alex, shot a string from its body to stick to a branch. When it stopped swinging to stay on the branch, Haythan finally recognizes the identity of his attacker. It was a silcoon.

"Silcoooooon." It whispers ominously at the trio's direction but made no more attempts to tackle down the group.

"Leaf, what did it say?" Haythan whispers as he felt Leaf relaxing her stance on his shoulder. The grass pokemon typed something onto the pokedex to expedite the conversation along, the automatic translator function had too much of a time gap. Pressing the talk button, the pokedex beeped and said

"Greetings, strong trainer of poochyena. I am silcoon. I have come when I heard that my rival has willingly submit herself to another. For one so hard headed, I did not think that poochyena would ever willingly pick a trainer. I was more than curious at the one who has captured her so I made up a few traps. Color me surprised when you not only stepped into every single one but actually pissed off even more of my trap's allies everywhere you go. Truly you are a strange master that my rival has submit herself to."

Alex yipped in indignation at the silcoon who now has smiling eyes (those upside down "v" thing).

"...I honestly have no idea how pokespeech works..." Haythan stares at the pokedex which translated an entire greeting and explanation for (most of) yesterday's run in with the wild pokemons.

"Silllllcoooon." The silcoon spoke up again and Leaf proceeded to do her (group-appointed) job of being the official pokemon translator.

"Since my rival is leaving, I feel that it'll become dull again in this area. I had planned on returning to Petalburg Woods to visit my family but I have a feeling that I'll just start wandering around again like I did before I met poochyena. Therefore I came up with one answer, will you be my trainer?"

"Eh? Just like that?"

"Sillllcoooon." "I have deemed you agreeable enough after your escape all my traps without too many injuries."

"Huh, okay." With a tilt of his head he walks over to the tree that silcoon was on and reached out to grab it out of the air as it jumped off of it's branch. Gently setting the cocooned pokemon down, Haythan searches his pack for one of the four pokeballs that Professor Birch gave him the day before. He finds one under his stove burner. Tapping it to full size, he nudges it at silcoon and watches as it turned red and disappeared into the orb. Like with Alex, the ball only shook once before going still. He quickly released the silcoon and watched as Alex made some sort of pouting face when he picked the silcoon up. While he had witness the bug pokemon's tremendous speed, it still would've felt awkward to be walking around with a bouncing silcoon on his side.

"Silcoooon" "Pleasure to with you trainer. The path to town is that way."Apparently silcoon knew the way to Oldale Town as it grew out a needle from its main body to point at a certain direction. Seeing as he, Leaf and Alex had no idea where else to go, they followed silcoon's advice.

* * *

Challenge to put in the story!

*Haythan shall forever be hopelessly lost and even his most capable pokemon shall be lost with him. He is fated to forever catch the ire of most wild pokemons while others shall just choose to ignore him... until he accidentally pisses them off as well.

*All of his pokemon shall be overpowered as heck from their daily training (Aka helping their trainer escape from angry pokemon) but will never voluntarily evolve beyond their base stat for random reasons like Treecko liking sitting on Haythan's shoulder and won't evolve since she'll get too big.

*For comedy purpose, Haythan will be caught in random situations where he'll be just barely out of the loop with his fellow Little Root trainers, Brandon and May. For example, he could choose to go by raft to the sea of route 105 instead of through the forest to Rusboro City or him going straight to route 103 and swimming across to near the trick master's house where he can go to Slateport or Mauville.

*No flying pokemon or teleporting pokemon, everywhere he goes, he goes by foot.

*Have fun writing the story.


	4. Oreimo: The boy who leapt through time

#4) Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Plot bunny attack~!

"Oi oi oi, you're kidding me right? This kind of stuff doesn't happen in real life." I pulled my cheek as hard as I can and let it go when it became too painful. The smack that resounded in the bathroom could've easily made it in the world's record book as the most audible sound to ever be made in a bathroom's wall... then again, that'll be too specific. Maybe the record for the most painful cheek pinch? Or maybe the record for the furthest possible distance a human cheek can be pulled. No no no, gotta concentrate on the matter at hand.

I looked intently into the mirror again and tried to find any tricks to it. It's following every one of my movements and doesn't feel fake to the touch. A punch to the glass might yield more definite results but I honestly don't want to make up an excuse should my fantasy-loving mind be actually correct. Next I walk to the scales and checked my weight. I scowled at the result that either supports my ridiculous theory or proved that someone enjoys messing with my mind... actually, I can think of many people who would enjoy messing with my mind, my very own mother have a secret tendency to do such things often.

I sighed aloud once more and walked back to my room. This is certainly not a dream because I felt a whole lot of pain when I pulled on my cheeks. This is certainly not a joke as it is too elaborately made. Either my height has been lowered without me knowing or the house grew a couple of inches. My most likely bet is on the first choice.

I opened the door to my room and found myself in an unfamiliar and yet nostalgic environment. It is the room that I've not been in for three years. After graduation and moving onto college, this room was left behind and was never actually vacated. Then again, if this situation is real, this room probably won't get vacated for quite a while.

I glanced at the calender in the room and sighed at the result. I looked down to the only table in the room and found a pile of half finished homework papers. I did a small calculation in my head and recognized why the pages are so lethargically done. It's been a year and a few months since the Akimi Sakurai incident. The stable point in when I finished my metamorphosis from an overly energetic middle school student to an average boy my age (abet slightly lazy). AKA, my parents have given up on me being more than regular and Kirino started a cold war on me.

The clock says that it was a Saturday and more likely then not, Manami will be expecting me and my homework to show up at her doors tomorrow. Perhaps I should finish these up so that I can hang out with her more instead...yeah that's the plan.

...

Oi oi oi! These are all wrong! What've you been doing little me? You're not even using the right equation to solve that problem! Are you even trying?... No, of course not. This is the period in my life when I had no motivation to do anything or rather, I didn't want any motivation to do anything. It looks like I really did troubled Manami a lot when I was small. No wonder she had developed that super granny personality, after all, she had to look after the lousy no-good son character that is little me.

I put down the worksheets and take a look outside my window to find that the sun has still not risen yet. The clock in my room says that it's only 4:30 so nobody will be awake at this time. Lets see now, no ridiculously complicated homework given by my hated professors, no plans to get to my part-time job in a hurry (or at all), no test reviews that I need to cram in a hurry and best of all, an enticingly comfortable bed staring at me straight in the eye. There really is only one answer for this metaphorical question.

I jumped on my beloved bed and rolled into a comfortable position before wrapping my blankets around me. Closing my eyes, I waited for sweet unconsciousness to come and get me.

...

...

...

...

...

God dammit I can't sleep. Damn you college habits of staying awake~! Damn you homework that make me wake up in ungodly hours to study~! Damn you teenage energy that's keeping me awake~! How am I supposed to be a lazy teenage boy at this rate!

...

Yeah okay, I'm getting up now. I got out of bed again and looked at the clock again. Five minutes has passed and it's still too early for anything to be happening. I walked around my room, looked at my homework and shrugged. Might as well do these. Another five minutes passed and I finished all the homework that laid on the table. I looked through my school bag to find anything else I needed to do and got nothing. Just a few already graded worksheets, a test that I barely passed, a schedule for the month and some rice ball plastic wrappings.

I sighed once more and started trudging around my room once more. I have absolutely nothing to do. If this is a prank, then it is a very boring one. I now honestly doubt that this is a prank or even a dream though. The more time I spent in this body, the more I get accustomed to it. Accustomed, as in my mind is unconsciously starting to accept that this is my body. There is less discomfort the more I walk around the room. The more I think, the more I remember what should be long forgotten memories. Like what Manami made for me last week or what I did the night before. Trace memories that should be long gone from my short term memory space appear if I tried to remember it. Too elaborate to be a prank, too true to be a dream, that only leaves one answer... I have traveled through time and am now back to my middle school days.

...

...

...

...

...

Damn I sound like a chuunibyou. Argh~! So embarrassing~! Think of something else already brain~!

_GURGLEEEEEEEEE~!_

Oh? Good job stomach, I can always count on you to help me out.

_GURGLEEEEEEEEE~!_

Alright! Lets go get some food!

-Downstairs-

Coast is clear. There's nobody here, preparing operation, nab some food... Wait, why do I need to sneak around? This is my house too. Toododododo, what is for breakfast today I wonder? Cold curry? Nah thanks brah. Half eaten apple? I think I should throw that away, it's kinda rotting. A cup of pudding? Maybe, but I don't want mom and/or Kirino to go after my head anytime soon. Yup, there's nothing breakfasty available in the fridge. That only means that we'll have to wait for mom to wake up and make breakfast. Sorry stomach.

_GURGLEEEEEEEEE~_

Well how can I deny that argument. Fine we'll just have to make breakfast for the family. Hope they'll like rice, soup, fish, omelet and pickled vegetables cause that's the only thing I know how to prepare! first the rice... hmmm, four people so that'll be two cups of rice and two and a half-ish cup of water. Thank you grandma Manami for teaching me how to survive on my own, I'm forever in your debt! What's next? Fish? That should be somewhere... here we go! Alright, now to heat up the oven throw you in the grill. While that's cooking, let's get to soup. Tofu, check, miso, check, stock, check, stuff, check and double check. Good, now to just throw all of these in a pot and hope for the best, just kidding~ Teehee!

_GURGLEEEEEEEEE!_

Ouch, low blow bro. Low blow. Anyways, how did Manami teach me to make this? Heat the stock, add the miso, let it stay in low temperature until others come and then throw in the tofu? That sounds about right. Yeah let's do that.

...

Once I made the omelet I looked at the clock again to check the time. Wow, how did that take me an hour to make? I really am a lousy cook. If there were actually people waiting, they'd probably die of starvation already.

_GURGLEEEEEEEEE..._

Oh right, I almost forgot about you. Got it chief, preparing dishes for consumption right now.

"Kyousuke? Is that you?" A voice spoke up from behind me as I was getting the plates to put the fish in. I turned around after setting down the plates and saw that it was mom who was looking at me questionably. I guess it is pretty weird to see your lazy teenage son waking up before you, especially on a weekend morning. In fact, I made it a habit to sleep in until the sun is completely up in the sky, if my memory is correct.

"Breakfast is almost ready. Please wait at the table." I turned on the heat for the miso again and added the tofu when I heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Since mom is down here and giving me a strange stare, I guessed that the person coming down was dad. Kirino should be coming down soon as well since according to my memory, I never see her at home when I wake up. I do recall mom mentioning something about track and modelling. Guess Kirino has already got a job at around this time.

I managed to put all the food onto some dishes and even made it presentable before setting it on a tray and carrying it towards the table. Mom was in her usual seat, continuing to look at me with that strange look of... worry? Why would she be worry? Did she think I messed up the salt with the sugar? I'm not cute, clumsy or girly enough for that to pass mother. I made sure that the food is edible as I was cooking it.

Dad came in as I sat down at the table after setting up the breakfast menu. He paused when he saw me and gave a rare show of emotion, if a raised eyebrow can even be called that. He sat next to mom and across from me before giving the food in front of him a glance. He looked at mom as if to asked her how she made the food so quickly. Before mom could answer though, I clapped my hands loudly, said "Itadakimasu" and dug into my meal. My parents followed suit and went through the same steps. We ate in relative silence that was only stopped when mom went to make coffee, in response to dad's silent question.

When we were finished, I cleaned up the plates and helped mom to wash it. Dad looked up from his newspaper to give another silent question and mom helplessly shrugged as she had no idea what was going on either. Finishing drying the last of the dishes and putting it in the cabinets, I looked at the clock again and noticed that it was getting close the seven. Dang, I was hoping this would kill more time than that. Arg! I have nothing to do~... Well, technically I could sit on the couch all day and watch the television but that doesn't have much appeal.

Usually I would be doing my homework, working on one of my programming side projects (AKA making eroges for comiket), cleaning the dorm or playing some eroge that my sister lent me. Curently I already finished my homework, have no computers to do any programming projects, I just really don't want to clean the house even if it is my last resort and I'm pretty sure that Kirino hasn't got hooked on eroges yet. I don't know Kouhei yet so I can't go hang out with him and it would be a bother for Manami if I visited her too much. Maybe a walk around Akihabara will give him something to do. Yeah, that's today's plan I guess.

I went upstairs to change my clothes into something more street appropriate and got some pocket money. I walked downstairs again when I looked decent enough and told my mom and dad that "I'll be out for a bit." Mom asked if I was going to Manami's house but I shook my head and said that I'm just going to take a walk around. Mom gave me a look that I couldn't identify and consented. Dad gave me a glance over his shoulder and went back to his newspaper. I guess that was the most reaction I'll be getting out of him. When I turned around to close the front door, I caught a glimpse of an adorable face with blonde hair and turquoise blue eyes staring at me from halfway up the stairs. Our eyes crossed and she harrumphs and looks away just as the door closed.

"Ah truly, my little sister can't be that cute." I turned around and jogged to the train station.

* * *

-Some time later in Akihabara-

Wow, I seriously have nothing to do. I've been wandering around for hours on end now and there is still seriously nothing that jumps into my mind and scream notice me. I mean come on! I'm in the pop culture center of Tokyo here, there's gotta be something I can do right? Apparently not as I'm sitting in a random McDonelbs drinking my coke soda. Kinda wishing that I could stay at home and browse the web, maybe play an eroge or two. But in order to do either of those two tasks, I need a computer or a laptop. And in order to get said computer and/or laptop, I need money. Mom and dad probably won't get me one so I'd have two get one for myself and that would mean getting a job... Huh, I wonder if that guy hires middle schoolers.

I suddenly got up from my seat and ran to the store that I've become really acquainted to after two years of working there.

-A store called "Miura's Electronics"-

Whoa this place hasn't changed even after a six year difference. That's really somehow kinda amazing, the owner's laziness to improving his store that is. I open the door and hear the familiar jingling sound of the door chime exclaiming a customer has come in. I waited for a few moment to see if my future employer was going to greet his customer or not. When no one came, I walked to the back. There was no one manning the register or was there anyone in the break room (the back of the shop). I figured that there was my future employer is not in here at the moment and scowled at the fact that the man had the gull to just leave his shop unattended like this.

The doorbell chimed again and I heard a faint "Excuse me, is there anyone that can help me?" from the front of the shop. Out of pure habit, I walked to the front of the shop and stood at the register before addressing the shop's customer.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"Huh oh, over there." The customer shuffled from the front of the shop to the register and paused when he saw my young appearance. He shrugged it off as a trick of lighting (which is sorely lacking for an electronic shop) and said "My laptop has been glitching on me lately and I want to ask if you can fix it. My friend recommended this place so do you think you can fix it?"

"Certainly sir, please write down in details what it is you wish for us to fix as well as your contact information and the owner will contact you if anything is needed." I pulled out a sheet of paper for the man to write down his problems and when he was done, I took the laptop and the piece of paper that was taped to it to the back. When I got to the front again I noticed that the customer was fidgeting around. I smiled and said "The owner will call you when he finishes and you can pay at that time. If there is anything that is not to your satisfaction, the service will be free of charge. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, that is all. Thank you very much." The man smiles gratefully and walks out the door. I hummed when I heard the jingle that proclaimed his leaving and decided to continue manning the shop.

After thirty minutes passed, I looked around the shop and decided to attempt to organize the mess into something orderly looking. Hours passed, customers came and went and the shop still looked the same only less dusty. I heard the door chime again and gave up my newest attempt to organize the hardware section of the shop to man the counter once more. The person who walked in blink when he saw me at the register, I stared at him straight in the eyes without looking away.

"Well now, I don't remember hiring anyone to look after the shop while I was gone."

"I heard you were looking for someone. I am willing to work for minimum wage."

"...What is your work schedule."

"I am free after four on weekdays and can work full time on the weekends while you go do your work."

"...I expect to see you here by opening time tomorrow."

"Please to work with you, I'm Kyousuke Kousaka."

"Kai Miura." He offered me a hand to shake and I immediately took out the prank shocker that was waiting in his palm before shaking his hands. He gave a "tch" as he went to the back to work on the things that the customers dropped off from earlier.

-Later-

"Hey kid, you better leave now before it gets too dark. Don't want your parents worrying or anything right?" Kai said to me after the clock declared that it was six. He closes the shop at eight so I looked at him questionably. He caught the look and waved it off while saying "Don't worry about it, nobody comes here after five anyways."

"Thank you." I bowed to him and began walking out of the shop before he stopped me and came out of the back.

"Here, take this one. It should work just fine for the purpose you're looking for." He handed me a case that had a laptop, a few disks and a charger in it. As the day had past, Kai got to know me better and found out my reason for wanting to get a job. He laughed when I straight out told him that I wanted one for playing eroges and offered me a chance to rent one from him until I gained enough money to buy one of my own. Now, I'm working for three quarters of minimum pay but in return, I now have access to a strong computer modified by Kai himself. I pulled out the disk and widened my eyes when I saw what it was. I quickly stuffed it back into the case and glared at Kai. The man was grinning like a lunatic.

"Try out that series. I originally wanted to give it to my nephew since he was into this kinda thing but who am I to reject a chance at corrupting another youth, huh?"

I pulled a Kirino and walked out the door without responding to him. As I got to the streets, he stuck his head out the window and yelled "I expect you to finish the little sister route by tomorrow, you hear me kid?"

I ignored the man and kept walking.

* * *

-House-

"I'm home." I called out to nobody in particular as I walked in the doors. It was around six thirty so there shouldn't be anyone home right now. Mom's probably still shopping for tonight's dinner, Dad's still at work and Kirino is doing whatever she does, most likely track and modelling. I walked into my room and turned on the laptop for it to automatically set up (since Kai wiped everything before handing it to me). As the laptop booted up, I noticed that my throat is a bit scratchy from lack of water. I decided to go to the kitchen to get a drink while the laptop continues its initializing. Walking the last steps of the stairs, I remembered that there was nothing to drink in the fridge besides water.

I felt like some some barley tea would sooth that itch in my throat and walked out the door again to visit the convenience store. The laptop seemed like it would take a while before it finishes booting up anyways. Hmm, come to think of it. This is the most active I've been in a while huh? Maybe I should tell my parents that I have a part-time job. Sigh, making an argument to persuade dad will take a while. Maybe if I get a good grade on the test next week, it'll improve my point. Yeah, let's leave the persuasion til next week. Until then, I'm sorry laptop but you'll be sleeping under my bed for the most part.

I grabbed a few bottles of barley tea from the shelf and made my way to the register when I paused at the ice cream box. Maybe some ice cream too will be a nice touch. Would Kirino like it if I buy her some? Maybe I could end the cold war faster this time if I get on her good side. Otherwise... it'll be a lonely year waiting for me. Yeah, I better buy her an ice cream... what flavor did she like? Ugh, I can't remember. She had always had a strict diet and rarely ate any sweets. Fine, vanilla it is. Vanilla's always the safest bet.

I paid the the items with the early pay Kai gave me to buy my "toys" with. That man really is too trusting sometimes but he is at least a good judge character... sort of. The sun was coming down and the sky was tinted in orange instead of blue so I guessed that it was around seven now. At times like this, I wished I had a phone so I could check the time but sadly enough, I won't be getting one until next year. Maybe I can convince dad... Then again, I have nobody to put into the contact list accept the mom, dad, Manami (does she even have a cellphone?) and Kai. It's a sad truth but I have no friends... cries.

I opened the door and walked in to see two extra pairs of foot wears than from when I left. Figuring that one of them belongs to Kirino, I wonder whose the other one is. If I were to listen carefully, I could hear Kirino energetically talking to someone in the living room. Maybe it's a friend from her school... Dang I only know two of her friends, Kanako and Ayase-tan. Either way, I better make a good impression. Should I try pulling off the cool guy act? No, Kirino said that I looked like a constipated retard. Silent loner? Well... I got the loner part right... no friends... sob. Meh whatever, default option: lousy but caring older brother it is. I closed the door and called out, "I'm home" for the second time that day.

Kirino's energetic voice stopped. Ah, I can see it now. She probably thought I'd be staying at Manami's house for the weekend and invited a friend over once I was gone. Please keep talking, don't make it look like my presence is a bad omen. If you do, nii-chan's feelings are going to hurt even more you know.

I walked into the room and caught a glance of blonde sitting next to luscious black. I immediately recognized Ayase's face. Whoa, even though it's six years into the past, she looks adorable. Passing by the two who were looking at my back, I put the tea in the cooling side of the fridge and the ice cream in the freezer side. Deciding to eat the ice cream first while I check on the laptop, I pulled out the chocolate flavored bar and ate it as I walked out of the kitchen area again. I caught Kirino's stare and said "I bought you some vanilla ice cream" before quickly exiting the living room. It wasn't until I made it to the top of the stairs before Ayase started the conversation again. I briefly heard something to do with the word brother and smiled nostalgically. I seriously wish I could hear her call me Onii-san one more time. I haven't talked to her for over a month now (before this happened). I miss my angel Ayase-tan~!

Oh the computer has finally finish booting up. Alright, my energy is fully restored after seeing my lovely angel! Lets install those pesky programs and get them out of the way first!

* * *

Challenge to put in the story!

*Not much of any challenge, just do whatever. Have Kyousuke start his own multi-million selling Eroges or make him win a lottery or something, he has the technology and the knowledge, plus he's six years ahead of everyone.

*Have him reconciliate with Kirino in the most awkward and funny way possible, free rein, just make it funny.

*Have fun writing the story.


	5. Rising of the Shield Hero: ShieldbroTime

#5) Random Tate no Yuusha crossover with Puella Magi Madoka plot bunny attack~!

"Ufufu… for me to be this precious to Naofumi-sama… I… am… hap…" Her voice trails off until her charred body shudders once in my hands. She closes her eyes and smiles gently at me before becoming still, unnaturally still.

"At… las…?" I call out her name in hope that she is just resting for a moment before continuing to voice her wish. She didn't answer. I nudge her shoulder gently to wake her up. She didn't react. I begin to frantically shake her in hopes that she'll moves, that she'll do anything to show life. She didn't.

Her body stayed unnaturally still, not moving at all except to the movements of my shaking. Her expression is frozen in a kind smile. Behind me, Raphtalia says something but I didn't hear it. All I heard was a word that kept on repeating itself, each time louder and louder inside my head. A word that keeps repeating itself until it escapes my mouth in the form of a loud scream.

"ATLAAAAAAAAAAASSSS!"

* * *

I open my eyes and jolt up in my bed. My breath labored and sweat rolls down my brows. I take a few desperate gulps of air as hundreds of thoughts race through my mind. The first and foremost being the one word that repeatedly cuts off every other line of thoughts.

"Atlas..."

After several moments, my strained breaths begins to have effect as my mind slowly starts to sort itself out. A few more moments and I finally calm myself enough to take notice of my surroundings.

"I am... in a bedroom?" I notice that I am on a bed of a room I am unfamiliar with. From the sparsity of the decoration, I can guess that it's a rented room in a city. A glance to the outside of the room's window tells me that it's a major city, perhaps Melromarc? "No, that wouldn't make any sense. Why would I rent a room in Melomarc when I could just teleport home. For that matter, when did I even fall asleep?"

I push myself out of bed and grasps the side of the nearby table as I lurch forward from my first step. "What is happening? Why do I feel so...weak? A status effect? A curse effect? Status."

I call up for my status screen and blink in shock as I see what has happened. My level is now at one. I look at the floating screen with a bewildered face as a thousand more thoughts comes cascading in again. What has happened? Did I experience a level reset? Is that why I am in the city? No, skills have nothing to do with level so I could've still teleported home. Why am I here then? Why is-

BAM!

Before my mind could ask anymore questions, the door to my room is slammed open and armored soldiers with the mark of Melromarc on them starts pouring in. They charged at me and two of them took the initiative to hold me down while the others points their weapons at me. In all my weakness, I could do nothing but comply to their actions in confusion.

"Wha-"

"-Hero of the Shield! You are under arrest for charges of sexual assault!"

A memory triggers. An anger deeply buried rises from its encampment. A deep menace enters my voice as I coldly ask the soldiers holding me down "Oi, what do you think you're doing."

"...Hero of the Shield, you are hereby under arrest for the charges of sexual assault. Yield and we will bring you to the castle for judgement with no harm done." The speaker who looks like the captain of the quadrant says again in a much more subdued tone. Sweat begins to form on his neck as his throat becomes uncomfortably dry under the guilty Hero's glare. Surrounding him, his soldiers all shuffle nervously as well under the imposing presence that seems to bound the Hero.

"...Very well, lead the way." With too many questions and not nearly enough answers, I did the only thing I am able to do and give in to their request. I have a hypothesis now as to what is happening and if it's true, it's better for me to defer and observe. As I am being escorted out of the door, I cross by a mirror in the room and catch a glimpse of the thing connected to my arm; a circular silver shield that I have never seen before in my life.

* * *

"-Fiend! I wondered when you would show your true color!"

Ringed by two guards pointing their spears at me, ready to hold me back should I make any suspicious movement, I watch as the drama of the scene I so hated in my memory plays itself for me once again. In front of me, Trash continues with his biased tirade and accusations while under his throne, his daughter gives my fellow Heroes her lies in the form of a sob story. As I have guessed, I came back to this point in time.

Sliding my eyes off of the fools before me, I glance at my new shield with narrowed eyes. A moment later, a screen pops up with the name of the shield, "Homulilly's Shield". Unlike all the shields that had came before, this one is completely different. Besides the name, nothing else shows. No stats, no effects, no descriptions or upgrade/unlock requirements.

A shield whose existence is a mystery to me and whose usage is what got me into this predicament. On the slow trek between the hotel and the castle, I took my time to acquaint myself with my new shield. At first, I tried to change it back into my default shield or perhaps one of its other variants. None of the attempts worked. Next, I tried to figure out how to use it, this attempt succeeded partially. The more I try to figure out the weapon on my arm, the more I repress the urge to laugh aloud.

As I continued to delve into its usage, the shield responded by giving me a variable amount of options to choose from. Memory manipulation, time cessation, renewal of time, emotional administration, inner demons summoning and even the ability to trap someone's soul within a small metaphorical cage. At a time when the name "Devil of the Shield" would begin to circulate, it actually becomes true. I can only laugh bitterly at this fact within my head.

"-What do you have to say for yourself, Shield!"

I am knocked out of my thoughts by an angry Trash as he calls for my attention. The look of pure hatred in his eyes makes me wonder where all this energy and emotion went when he could have used it to save the world, to save Atlas. Anger wells inside me before being pushed aside by fatigue and exasperation. I feel... tired. I do not have to deal with this now. I do not _want_ to deal with this now. I wish to mourn for Atlas. I wish to fix things now that I have a chance. This drama... is something that I do not want to handle anymore.

"Enough of this farce. I am leaving now. I will come back once Melromarc's true leader returns." Turning my back towards the king, I test a function of my new shield and freeze time around me. I was careful to avoid the touch of anyone lest they too get pulled into the zone where time still exists with me. Motion stops around me altogether as I continue walking towards the door. Once at the closed entrance, I decide to unfreeze time so that they can at least see me leaving.

"..!" Collective shuffling and clinking of clothes and armors fills my ears moments after time starts again to show that the drama viewer's and actor's noticed to my displacement. I was opening the grand entrance to leave when Trash yells aloud for me to stop. "Shield! Where do you think you're going! Guards, stop the criminal from escaping!"

"..." As expected, I became a criminal anyways. I wasn't hoping for very much by letting them see my leave. The thought that they would take it as a dismissal and accepted it was a piped dream that only occurred as a passing thought. As I take my first step out the entrance, the guards by the door hears their current ruler's decree and move into action, weapons drawn and readied for use immediately. As the nearest one takes a swing at me with the shaft of his spear, I decide to test out another function of my new shield and summon an inner demon from somewhere within my heart.

"KLACK-KLA-KLACK-KLACK" The air behind me shifts as half of a silver haired nutcracker appears from a hole that came out of nowhere. It spins its head several times in succession, letting its mane fly wildly, before putting itself between me and the attacking soldier. The soldier's spear lands inside the nutcracker's mouth and is then ripped from the soldier's hands, throwing him meters away. Slurping the spear up like it was a string of noodle, the nutcracker clacks it's mouth up and down once more. The sound it makes sounds strangely reminds me of laughter, of Atlas' laughter.

I grit my teeth as my demon continues to mock the weary soldiers. Ordering it to close the door me, I dismissed it almost immediately after and walk to the castle's entrance. I have much to do, too much to do.

* * *

"GRARRR..." I ignore the death cries of faraway monsters and swipe away the screen in front of me announcing yet another level up. I needed as much of my attention as I could muster to be put into sorting out the materials my demons brought back to me. I have found that while they are the perfect tools for doing simple tasks such as hunting down materials and killing monsters, they have absolutely no judgement of their own and needs specific details to do specific tasks. Already, I've had to stop four incidents which almost resulted in the death of two adventurers and an accident at a nearby town.

Wiping away the memories of the victims and healing their wounds was an easy task but it left a sour taste in my mouth. I therefore had to pull back into the deeper, less traveled parts of the land to collect my materials. The benefits to this is that the levels of the monsters here are higher than most of the kingdom's greatest soldiers, thereby giving me more drops and yielding better experience gain, but it came with the hindrance of me having to keep unneeded materials for a longer time.

"KLACK-KLAC..." I look up to see yet another one of my demons bring back more materials from the monster hunt. I grimace at the likeliness in shape this particular demon shared with Atlas and sends it away to continue its task almost as soon as I noticed. It nods once and marches off into a random location. I stare at its back for just a moment before returning to organizing the new batch of materials.

At first, I wanted to make headway immediately to the Slave Dealer's shop and take Raphtalia as well as any of the other slaves from my village with me. I only stopped when I realize my limits. I have no money or housing to store the any number of slaves like that. At this point in time, I have nothing. Since I never passed by the Old Man's place, I don't even have his help.

Therefore, I did the only thing I could think of. I stocked up. I will regather my materials and rework my trade routes as well as earn back everything material I had before my journey back. Only once have I achieve satisfactory safety will I go and get all of my slaves back.

"...If I remember correctly, the Yggdrasil medicine is made like this..." Having the miracle medicine is the best bet to solving most of my problems so I sent my demons to gather the materials for it. It didn't take me even a week's worth of time to procure an ample amount of material. I have enough materials, in fact, to adequately recreate any amounts I have made before, _combined_, and still have a surplus. Such was the fearsomeness of the demons the shield's created; the tireless and fearless creature whose only weakness was death itself.

Grounding up some ingredients, I manually tried to recreate the potion that would've just as easily been acquired if I had the proper shield. Grunting as a small puff of smoke rises from the concoction that I created accidentally, I poured the failure away and start the process anew. It took me til the midnight of the week's end before I was satisfied with the supply of medicine I have at hand.

By the time I finally made it back to Melromarc, it became the morning of a new week. Deciding, that it was still too early to start trading the leftover materials I have on me, I rented out a room at the nearest hotel that accepted me and slept until late afternoon. The first true rest I've experienced since coming back.

* * *

"Welcome to my humble shop, Hero of the Shield." Cracking a wide grin that I could never exactly bring myself to trust, Slave Dealer ushers me into his "shop" before I even got close enough to open the entrance. I allowed myself to be pulled in by him and allowed him to show me into the front of his shop, a monster store. "Now then, Shield-sama, is there anything of interest that you are looking for? A strong and powerful slave perhaps? A beautiful and demure slave perhaps? I sell all kinds and if it's not here, I will be able to procure one for your taste soon enough. So tell me Hero-sama, what is of your interest?"

"I am looking for a particular slave named Raphtalia as well as any other slaves who have lived in this village in the past." Pulling out a map from the void of infinite space within my shield, I laid it out on a nearby table and point at one particular spot. The slave trader drops his wide grin in exchange for a thoughtful expression as he study the location his newest customer pointed to.

"This spot... If I'm not mistaken, isn't this Rurorona Village, the location of the first wave of calamity?" The Slave Dealer mutters half to himself and half to me. I honestly have no idea what went through his mind but he hums for a bit before putting back on a wide smile. "If it's the people who have lived there, then they will be far spread by now Hero-sama. To find them would-"

"I trust that you can find them and bring them here." Dropping a bag of gold that I have acquired from selling my excess materials and watered down Yggdrasil Medicines, I ended any possible bargains and negotiations. The shop keeper's smile withers a bit as he looks at me with speculative eyes. He is a businessman and he understood it perfectly, I am a customer who won't take anything less than a yes for an answer. "This is all legitimate money that I have made using my own effort, if that fact was troubling you."

"...Very well, Hero of the Shield-sama. Please come this way to take your slaves."

* * *

"Oi, hurry up already you two. Quit lagging behind." Walking hurriedly through the streets, I try to usher the two newly acquired slaves behind me to go faster.

"?! Y-yes, milord!" "We're coming!"

Moving faster but still keeping care to have my cloak cover their bodies, a small girl with raccoon ears and another small girl with dog ears runs towards me to keep up with my pace. From the Slave Dealer's shop, I have managed to procure two of my previous slaves, Kiel and Raphtalia.

As the two catches up to me, I begin moving again at a fast pace to the Old Man's place. He is the only one I can trust right now to sell proper gears to Kiel and Raphtalia without the need for the shield's mental manipulation power. I would also prefer it if I was on a level of acquaintance with him; if not in life then at least in business. He's helped me far too much for me to wish otherwise.

Cling-cling-cling

"Welcome to Elhart's Smithy! How can I help... you." I wince a bit at the change in tone the man before me has when he recognized me; not for who I am but for what my charges claims me to be. It is not a tone I'd ever thought would come from his voice. I push down the feeling of sadness and look at him with deliberately blank eyes while gesturing for my slaves to come closer.

"I need some balanced gears for these two. Money is no trouble but I would prefer it if you could get some gears that lean towards higher defensive capabilities." I quickly give him my request and try not to look away from his judgmental stare. Finishing what I had to do, I push Raphtalia and Kiel forward for the Old Man to do his job.

Grunting at the request, the Old Man gives the two a stare down before going to the back rummage through his stock to find whatever he has in mind. He comes back out quickly and hands the two demi-humans some gears before telling them to change into it for fitting purposes in the changing room near the back. I paused time for a mere moment to take a good look at the gears he's handed them and undid the time stop with a small smile as I finished reading the item screens. No matter what he believes, the Old Man still does his job properly.

""..?"" The two look at me questionably while awkwardly holding the bundles of cloth and armor in their hands. I make a shooing motion with my hand to tell them to change and they took off to the changing room immediately. As the curtains rustles in front of them to show that they're changing, I turn to the Old Man and reach for the pouch of coins I carry at my waist.

"How much will the gears cos-"

"-Boy, answer me this. I have seen your eyes once when you've come here before and once now. Neither shows what the rumors say they should show. Did you or did you not assault your teammate?"

"I did not."

The answer was obvious. Why would I even bother to touch Witch. But then... wouldn't an immediate answer sound like denial? If so, then isn't it just as bad as admitting to the lie? Sighing to myself, I draw out two gold coins and put it down in front of the Old Man. The gears he gave Raphtalia and Kiel are high-tier beginner's gear so three quarter of a gold would probably be the right price for one pair, give or take.

"Come quickly, Raphtalia, Kiel. We have other matters to take care of." I turn my back on the Old Man before he could do anything else and walk out the door with a call to my slaves.

"Yes, My lord!" "Yeah, okay!"

Rushing out of the curtains with their gears on, the two runs after me with a bit more surety to their steps now that they've put on proper footwear. I open the door for them before walking out myself, not willing to look at whatever face the Old Man has on. I don't think I can take it now if it's a bad one. Not after seeing Raphtalia and Kiel acting so frailly near me, as if they don't know me. As if they're scared of what I might do to them should they disobey me.

* * *

"Can I have two kid's meal and one of the cheapest meal?" I barely give the waiter any acknowledgement as he takes my order with a scowl on his face. He in return did not say anything and walks off to the kitchen to prepare the meals. Next to me, Kiel looks around with a sparkle to her eyes as she witness the beginning of a bar fight from the drunks nearby. I chuckle at the reaction and turn my hooded head to my other companion, Raphtalia.

"Is something wrong, Raphtalia?" I ask my raccoon slave as I notice her fidget and looking around uncomfortably.

"N-no! There's nothing wrong at all, my lord!" The girl jolts and looks at me in alarm. I am reminded of what Raphtalia was like in the past and fight the scowl itching to grow on my face.

"Can you call me by my name instead? It's Naofumi." I instead request her to call me by my old title and hope for the best that it is similar enough to what she'd call me in the past -in the future-.

"Y-yes, Naofumi-sama." This time, I fought down a sad smile and ruffles her hair in lieu. I try to ignore the flinch she gave me when I touched her head.

The meal at this restaurant tasted like how I always remembered it, bland and tasteless.

* * *

"Oi, hurry up and stab this thing already!" On the way to a hunting spot full of useful materials, I allow small encounters with monsters to bypass my demons and attack our group. This is done so that I could give Kiel and Raphtalia some battle experience past the abnormal amount of growth they will get from my demons' massacre of the local monsters. Kiel took it up immediately and used her sword energetically but with absolutely no form or technique. Raphtalia on the other hand... she still hasn't bypassed her fears of canine and pulls back quickly if an attack misses or goes wrong.

"Nii-chan! I'm done here!" Kiel waves her sword in the sunlight not very far away from where I stood with Raphtalia. I yelled an affirmative towards her location and calls her to come back before I take a step in front of Raphtalia again and block another attack from the oversized monster wolf in front of me. I twist my shield and bring my palm down on its head to slam it to the dirt floor.

"Raphtalia! It's pinned down, attack!" I clicked my tongue as she just shook her head and pulls back. I picked a pack of wolves to let pass since I remembered her having canine-related trauma and since the pack was just at a low enough level to where even she and Kiel can take on alone with their gears.

"N-no! Stay away! No!" Her eyes look glazed and her shaking increased to an even higher extent. I sigh and let go of the wolf to pause time. Afterwards, I pull a sword out from my shield and decapitate the dog before putting the sword away and unfreeze time.

"...It's okay Raphtalia. Forget what just happened. The wolves are gone now..." Pulling my cloak over her, I bend down and hug her shivering form while coaxing her to calm down. It took a while and by the time she tired herself out, the sun was already setting. I pick her up and look over at a rather silent Kiel.

"Kiel, it's getting dark. we should start heading back." I nudge my head in the general direction of Melromarc castle town and start walking towards it.

"Nii-chan... did you know? The monster that killed Raphtalia's parents. It was also a dog." Following uncharacteristically silent behind me, Kiel speaks up after several terse minutes.

"I had a hunch."

"Then why did you make Raphtalia fight it? Couldn't you have just taken care of it yourself or left it to me?"

"...The Hero of the Shield is a protector and a defender. The problem is, the Hero is not omnipotent. I cannot be everywhere at once. Therefore, I want to do the next best thing. I want to defend you all until you can defend yourself. I want you all to be strong... So that what happened to your village won't happen again. This... is the first step for Raphtalia."

I hug the girl in my arm a bit closer to my body as the words sink in. Yes, I want to protect everyone. I will not fail at doing that task again. I won't let anyone experienced what happened to Atlas. I feel something touch my free hand and look down to see Kiel looking up at me with eyes I can't understand. She gives me a nod and continues holding my hand while walking by my side. I let her and pull Raphtalia closer once more when she grasps my shirt. I ignored the small sob that escaped into the night air.

* * *

I look at the two girls sleeping on the only bed in the room and I frown sadly. I lied to them. No, I didn't exactly lie. I gave them misinformation.

_"...The Hero of the Shield is a protector and a defender. The problem is, the Hero is not omnipotent. I cannot be everywhere at once. Therefore, I want to do the next best thing. I want to defend you all until you can defend yourself..."_

None of that was a lie. The Shield does protect and I wish to protect them. Yet, I might as well have lied to them.

In her shared bed, Raphtalia starts squirming and makes faint groaning sounds. I reach over and neutralized the emotion of fear invading her mind. This in turn causes her to cease her writhing and fall back into a nightmareless sleep.

Lowering my hand, I look at the shield strapped to its arm. I turned my arm around to look at the strap and use my other hand to loosen the band and slip the arm it's tied to out. I lift both arms up and hold it by my side while looking at the shield sitting innocently on my lap. It did nothing and my frown continued.

Restrapping the shield to my arm, I remember the first time I noticed something wrong. It was at the Old Man's place. Raphtalia and Kiel were changing into the new gears that came with their sudden growth spurt from children to young teenagers. I went in the back upon the request of the Old Man and was handed two blades to examine. He had wanted to see if I thought those types of blade might fit the style that the girls are creating through battles against monsters. I had held the blades, I had drawn the blades and I had even swung once with each blade. That was when I had first noticed.

I watch as Kiel mumbles something about grill roosted meat and turned my sad frown into a sad smile. They try and work so hard because they think that they are working for a Hero. I am no Hero.

A Hero would never be able to summon demons nor would he need to lie about the demon's existence by calling them creations from his former world. A Hero would not stand by and allow a pack of wolves to attack his teammates and expect them to fight back when he could very well fight for them. A Hero would not lie about his title and identity to his trusted ones and live that lie. I did all those things. Therefore, I am no Hero.

I wonder... would they think any less of me if they were to find out the truth?

* * *

"That's enough for today. C'mon, I'm getting you two new gears." Calling out from my large stash of carefully lain out and organized materials, I look at Raphtalia and Kiel as the two girls fend off their opponent's last hit.

"Yes, Naofumi-sama." "Kay, Nii-chan!"

It has been a week since I've bought the two girls into my service and they've already grown to their full adult form, in Raphtalia's case anyways, Kiel's always been ambiguous. Thanks to the demons that I sent out on a daily basis, the whole party leveled up far more efficiently than my previous timeline. Since the wave is going to hit in one week's time, I decided to balance their levels with their sword skills and trained the two in personal combat.

In other words, I sent one of my Atlas-shaped demons after them to tire them out and make them fight back as much as possible. Surprisingly, the two managed well as a survival unit and actually did a proper job of going toes to toe with a silver haired nutcracker since morning til now.

After seeing satisfying results, I call them back and we returned to castle town again to give the Old Man a visit.

...

...

...

Cling-cling-cling

"Welcome to Elhart's Smithy! How can I help- oh, it's just you lad." Slumped across his counter, the Old Man gives a halfhearted greeting and a wave of his hand.

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean? I'm a paying customer you know." I scowl at his attitude and look at him in no little amount of exasperation while holding the door for Raphtalia and Kiel.

"Yes yes, but you come here every other day. I kind of already expect to see you coming. It would be a nice change if someone else were to walk into here." The Old Man straightens and gives me a shrug of his shoulder along with a long winded sigh. I was half tempted to threaten us leaving and finding another smithy when he beats me to it. "So what can I do for you today? Finally deciding to buy some armor for yourself? One more upgrade for the girls? A lesson in swordsmanship?"

"An upgrade for Raphtalia and Kiel... what's wrong with my armor?" I reply as the Old Man already starts moving to hand the two girls a new set of gears in trade for their old ones and take their swords for repair. I look down at my tunic and chest plate to see nothing wrong with it, aside from a few scratches here and there.

"Besides the fact that it looks like something a squire would wear for sword practice? Nothing at all. I'm surprise you haven't experienced worse wounds already. Then again, I doubt much could get past a Shield Hero's defense." The Old Man deadpans at me and goes to check the girls' sword only to whistle loudly upon first inspection. "Oh? Did you three fight a monster made out of rocks? These swords are completely blunted. No amount of sharpening and repair will ever give these blades an edge anymore."

"That's fine, they need new blades for the wave anyways. Do you have any of about the same size?" I guess it was due time for an upgrade anyways. I wonder if I should have made my demons softer. Can I even do that?

"Well lucky you lad, I just forged these two last night and they fit the girls perfectly." Reaching under his counter, the Old Man pulls out two swords of slightly different length and size. Upon inspection, I found it to be two rather powerful magic swords. "If you buy them now, I'll even give you a discount."

"Are you sure about that? These two blades are pretty strong." I furrow my brows when he offered the discount and asks him of his surety.

"The weapons itself is mostly composed of the items I traded off from you a few days back and I only pitched in for the ores. Think of it as a commissioned piece and I'll sell it as one."

"Naofumi-sama, we're done." "Nii-chan! Look! This armor is awesome!"

"...How much are the swords." I didn't want to continue having the argument with the Old Man in front of the girls so I backed off and went with his price.

"For the new armor and the swords, 600 silvers." I scowl as the man clearly discounted his price. The Old Man caught sight of it and grins widely while wiggling his eyebrow. "Just do good in the wave and advertise my shop. Bring the girls back from time to time too."

"Is something wrong Naofumi-sama?" "Nii-chan?"

Raphtalia and Kiel walks over to see my scowl and immediately becomes concerned. I heave a great sigh before taking the swords and thrust a bag of silver at the smith. Before he can take the time to count out that I had paid him a surplus of four hundred coins, I marched out the door.

* * *

"Is something the matter Naofumi-sama?" I lift my eyes up from the map that I was focusing on and catch Raphtalia's sleepy gaze staring at me. "You've been putting on a dark scowl for a while now. Is something troubling you?"

"...Nothing. I am just having trouble deciding where we should go train next for a last effort exercise before the wave." I watch as she separates herself from Kiel's hold to walk over to my bed languidly. I scoot aside to make give her some sitting space and she practically plops down on the bed with a mildly loud yawn.

"Is there a problem with the location we are training at?" Turning her drowsy eyes towards the map lying on the table, she tilts her head in confusion before asking me.

"You are both leveling at a... fast pace so it would only be detrimental to your growth if you were to stay in one location. Moving around to find stronger enemies is the best way for you two to develop your skills right now."

"Then I will follow you wherever you'll lead us." Taking in my explanation with understanding, Raphtalia nods and gives me a large smile, one filled with too much trust. One that is too similar to a certain girl I failed.

"Even if I were to lead you to fighting the monster that killed your parents? Even if I were to lead you to certain death?" I watch as she flinches back at the sudden change in tone and mentally slap myself. That was not something I should have blurted out. She's still too traumatize, I should not have said something so callous. I should apologize. "...Rap-"

"I would follow you even then." Raphtalia cuts me off before I could even start the first word. My mouth shuts with a clack as she catches my eyes with resolute ones of her own. She gulps loudly and begins to talk again. "You've taken us in, you've taken care of us, you've trained us, you've looked over us, you've made sure to keep us safe and you've promised to protect us. I might not know much because I'm young but I know one thing, I would follow you anywhere, Naofumi-sama. I will follow you to protect you while you protect us."

"...Go to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." Pursing my lips as a memory of a certain white haired girl saying something similar, I order Raphtalia to get rested. She holds my gaze for another few moments before nodding to my order and returning to her own bed to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, the room was once more filled with the sounds of soft breathing from the two sleeping girls. I sat on my bed as memories after memories play by of a certain demi-human I failed; my map sits on the table, forgotten.

* * *

"The wave's about to begin, are you two ready?"

"Yes, Naofumi-sama." "Yes, Nii-chan!"

"Kiel, do you have your potions?"

"In my pouch and secured extra tightly like you ordered, Nii-chan!"

"Good. Raphtalia, what about you?"

"Both the back up and the back up's back up are here like you've ordered, Naofumi-sama."

"Good, how about-"

"We'll be fine Naofumi-sama. You've trained us for this after all."

"Yeah! Besides, we'll be next to Nii-chan the whole time anyways!"

"...Remember to be careful, just in case."

"Yes, Naofumi-sama" "Yes, Nii-chan!"

* * *

The wave ended... better than I expected.

Just like before, we were teleported to the same local area as the village we've visited often and Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki ran off again in a wild charge against the main hoard of monster. Just like before, I decided that we should help the village instead and went there.

What didn't happen like last time though was that we arrived at the village quite early due to being teleported a lot closer. We had enough extra time to actually build up a proper defense around the town entrance while managing to herd the town people to a slightly more secure location. It seems that the danger of the wave exceeds the hatred of my name a lot more in this time. Perhaps it's because I don't have a bad name to marketers by using Balloon threats.

The monsters came and quite honestly? Raphtalia and Kiel slaughtered them before they even got near the stationed guards. It was quite literally a massacre. I guess this is to be expected though, we were nowhere near this level when our first wave hit the first time. The only problems that occurred was when the flying monsters got past the girls to aim for where the towns people were located. That was solved when I gave the guards stationed by the gates with me the okay to back them up, seeing as the gates were secured with the girls' presence.

Though it ended up well... I didn't get to do anything. I didn't get a chance to summon a demon. All that preparations, the extra Yggdrasil Medicine that I stayed awake for nights on end to make... not even one was used. I was half tempted to just walk into the fray that the girls jumped into and start shield bashing everything around halfway through. Instead, I merely left it up to the girls and went to help the town guards. I honestly didn't want to use my portion of the Yggdrasil Medicine like this and would have preferred it if I could have saved it and sold the watered down version at a later date.

When the royal soldiers finally came, the town people were pretty much beginning to clean up the mess while I was cooking a big town meal out of sheer boredom. A few dozens of minutes later, Raphtalia and Kiel energetically returned to town with words that the wave is being pushed back by the Heroes' fight with the Boss Monster, a chimera. The captain of the royal soldiers begrudgingly gave orders for his men to start cleaning up as well before going to the town guard's captain to get an explanation of some sort to report back.

Unlike last time, my "first" wave ended rather blandly with the most interesting part being Kiel's graphic and embellished description of how she saw the other Heroes. I honestly doubt Ren can shoot "flaming dragons" with a swing of his sword just yet. I gave her an extra big portion of Wave's Bird Soup and a head pat when she stated that I was still much cooler. Raphtalia seems to have became some sort of idol since she was in charge of passing out my soup. I jokingly made notes to work on putting her up as a divinity figure if this goes on the right path. It would definitely help with plans in the future for when I regain control of the village.

* * *

"-Tonight, we feast! Enjoy yourselves to the fullest, heroes!"

If only Trash was less... trashy, I would have probably took that speech seriously. Besides me, Raphtalia looks rapturously at the scene of the ongoing party. I smile at this sight and pushes her to go and commune with others. I wish for her to at least enjoy herself for now. She did a good job at the wave and made quite a few acquaintances with the royal soldiers who are here at the party. Kiel has ran off a while ago at the sight of all the food and I haven't seen her since.

Taking a deep breath, I lean back and try my best to blend into the shadows. Since now is a good of time as any, I might as well start checking up on stats and see what I should do next. Looking at party status, I noticed that Kiel and Raphtalia have finally hit their first limit, level forty, and are now both ready for a class-up. This causes me to frown. Mostly due to the fact that I'm sure Trash has given a ban from me getting having a class up in Melromarc but also due to the lack of Firo and her advance option class-ups.

The lack of Firo can be taken care off tomorrow, when I go back to the Slave Dealer under the notion of checking up on my request. If he has found slaves who once lived in Rurorona Village, I will buy them and send them to some homes that I've built near Ryuuto Village with the permission of the town mayor. For now, Ryuuto Village will have to be my base until I can request to earn the land for my village back.

Still... what should I do about the class up? Perhaps I can go to Zeltbull for their Dragon Hour Glass. I might even be able to see Atlas and Fohl there as well. No... there's a high chance that Fohl might not even be working under Zeltbull's Slave Trader yet. I vaguely remember him mentioning moving around to find proper medicine for Atlas. It would seem suspicious if I go out of my way to find a slave there when I already have a deal with the Slave Dealer here. It might cause me to lose trust with Fohl. There's too many cons for going to Zeltbull now, I should wait until at least the events of Cal Mira passes.

"Naofumi-sama, would you not like to join us?" Rubbing away the migraine that I'm starting to get from planning the future course of actions, I hear Raphtalia's voice in front of me. I look up to see her holding a plate piled mildly high with food in one hand and two forks in her other hand. Besides her, Kiel is offering up her half eaten plate while chewing through the food she's already stuffed in her mouth using the squirrel method.

"I'm alright here, thanks. Go and enjoy yourselves. It's a rare occasion so you should make full use of it." I said with a smile and wave them off. Raphtalia returns my smile with one of her own and puts the forks onto the plate before grabbing one of my hands. Kiel swallows her food loudly, puts on a wide grin and takes my other hand. Together, they both dragged me to an open seat which they make me sit in before barring me on both sides.

"Nii-chan! Try this one, it tastes really weird!" "Here, Naofumi-sama. You should try some as well."

"Oi, why are you only giving me food if it tastes weird." Muttering more to myself than to them, I take Raphtalia's extra fork and start picking up food on the plates while making small conversations with them and watching as they make small conversations with others who seems to begrudgingly acknowledge my existence.

"-There he is! NAOFUMI!" A familiar voice calls me an unfamiliar title. I turn to see the person that I've been expecting. I see his livid face as he walks towards me and I see Witch following closely behind him. I held back a cruel smile when I remember her death. No, it wouldn't do to show such a face in front of all these people. Instead, I close my eyes and smile charmingly, an amalgam of Raphtalia's and Kiel's natural smile.

"Is there something wrong, Motoyasu?" I try to keep negativity from my voice and found that it came out sounding rather dull. Huh, does my voice usually not have any inflection other than negativity? That is a depressing thought.

"Is something wrong?! Of course there's something wrong!" Motoyasu explodes as he stands in front of me and I look up at him with what I hope are eyes of questioning and curiosity. "I've heard from Mein. Your teammates, you're forcing them to fight while being held under slavery contracts!?"

"Forcing my teammates? Are you forcing _your_ teammates to fight for you?" I smile as he looks at me bewilderingly. It's a fresh breath of air to see him do something other than blabber about Philorials or Firo. Though, I feel that this fresh air will stale quickly. I can only continue with the events that Trash and his daughter had planned for. Honestly, skipping this party would have been quicker would it not paint me in an even more negative light to the people of Melromarc. Reputations is what I need sorely at this time and any that might be positive will do. "No? Then no, I'm not forcing Raphtalia and Kiel to do anything. I asked them to fight with me, and they willingly fight by my side."

"How can they say no even if you asked them?! Their slavery contracts denies them of even that basic right!" If you're talking about basic rights then shouldn't you be talking it out with the leaders of the nation instead? They're the ones that are allowing slavery to begin with.

"Motoyasu, how many free demi-humans have you seen on the streets of Melromarc?" Again, another look of confusion. Well, at least he's thinking about the question instead of outright denying everything and challenging me to a duel. "I'll just tell you now that there are none near here. Outside of the Capital walls? Maybe. But definitely not inside. Do you know why?"

"...Melromarc has a bad history with the demi-human race." The blonde shifts his stance and begins to actually hold a conversation. Wow, this didn't happen last time. What changed? "But, they are a Hero's companion. Slavers and other people would not want to do something bad to the one who's saving them."

"What if the Slavers and others don't care about the Hero? After all, I've been branded as the Demon Shield for no reasons of my own. They wouldn't give a second thought as to whether or not to attack me the moment I give them a chance." Not that I would anyways. Oh look at that. We've built up a crowd with this conversation. Hello Trash, I see you merrily making your way here.

"You've earned that brand by doing a bad deed and yet you still deny it?!" Motoyasu practically snarls at me, his spear softly glowing to emphasize his agitation. "Whatever you think will happen, it's still not right to put living human beings under slavery. Free them, I will give my word as the Spear Hero that they will not be harmed."

"And I have no reason to trust your words." Come on, take the bait. Trash is coming and I need to make my presence here be known. The image of a pushover demon shield is worse than an image of a powerful demon shield. At least with the second, I'll have a better appearance to built up on. "Besides, the law of this country allows for slavery. Why should I give up that right?"

"If that's the case, I challenge you to a duel for their freedom. If I win, you will allow Raphtalia-san and Kiel-san to be free from their contracts. Even if the law allows for such a thing, I won't." There we go, now to add the finishing touches of this oh so brilliant plan.

"I've heard enou-" The Trash begins to walk into the little circle that Motoyasu and I have built up in our argument, preparing to accept the duel in my steed when I cut him off.

"-And if I win, I would like for the ban on the Shield Hero from using the Dragon Hour Glass to be lifted." Motoyasu furrows his brows at the demand and I let loose what hopefully doesn't look too much like a malevolent smile. From the corners of my eyes, I can practically see Trash bristling. "You didn't know? The fact that this country's _wise_ king decided to cripple one of his Heroes by banning my party from being able to Class Up? Well? What's it going to be, Motoyasu? I will accept this duel under that condition, it's quite beneficial to you in any case isn't it? You're helping my slaves no matter if you win or lose."

"...I accept." Motoyasu turns his narrowed eyes to the side to ask Witch for confirmation on my accusation and she pretends to be innocent by acting like she knew nothing. Perfect, now Trash is forced to accept this duel under my condition with the witness of many important guests and all the Heroes.

"Tr- King Aultcray, would you be so kind as to allow the Spear Hero and my duel here in the castle premise?" Whoops, almost called him Trash out of habits. Gotta to have to work on that. Let's give him one of my bright smiles. Oh, scary glare.

"...Very well, I shall permit a duel between the the Hero of the Spear and the Hero of the Shield to be placed in the courtyard." With a firm and neutral tone, Trash declares this before walking off and telling nearby guards to prepare the courtyard for the duel.

I start to walk out and prepare myself as Motoyasu does the same. Our eyes meet for a moment and I give him a wide out-of-character grin. He said nothing as Witch led him off. I in turn pulled Kiel and Raphtalia with me.

* * *

"...Naofumi-sama." "Nii-chan."

Under one of the entrances to the courtyard, Raphtalia, Kiel and I waited while watching the castle soldiers prepare a stage for my duel. If I squint past the darkness, I can make out the figure of Motoyasu standing on the other side doing much the same with his little group of followers. I turn to the girls as they call my name.

"Will you still help me save this world even if you're not my slave anymore?" I answered their silent question with one of my own and watch as they immediately nod their heads in response. I smile pleasantly (why did I only feel my lips twitch for a moment before returning to the usual scowl?) and pat them both on their lowered heads. "Then there you go. I'm not abandoning you two or anything, I'm just having a childish argument with one of my fellow Heroes. You two did the same thing a few days ago when I asked what you wanted for dinner."

Raphtalia blush slightly at the memory and Kiel laughs nervously. I pull my hands back from the head petting when a soldier comes by and tells me that the field is ready. I nod at him and he walks off. I wonder where Female Knight is at this moment. "Well, looks like I'm going. Wish me luck you two."

"Un. Good luck Naofumi-sama." "Kick ass, Nii-chan!"

* * *

"-A loss will occur should a competitor be forced into a corner or if he concedes victory, himself. With that explained, you may now..."

Motoyasu lowers himself in preparation for a charge with his spear pointing straight at me. Unlike last time, he did not make any banter about the strongest shield and spear dilemma. Instead, he glares at me with narrowed eyes filled with determination. Seeing this, I am reminded of what that woman teammate of his, Elenor or something like that, once said in a passing conversation. Motoyasu doesn't make his group fight much. Instead, he trains alone at night when everyone else is asleep. He trains enough to keep everyone in his group at proper levels with the other heroes' companion and considering he has party with five extra members in his group... He may have a spotty personality and is a lousy judge of character but he can be a serious threat should he wishes to be.

"-Begin!"

On Trash's signal, Motoyasu charges forward immediately and lunges his spear at me as it was halfway transforming into another. I put my shield between my chest and his spear as he got too close. The spear clangs against my shield but fails to penetrate it.

As I shift to push the spear towards the side, Motoyasu mutters undecipherable words under his breath. Something strikes me on the side and I turn to see a floating transparent spear trying to gorge pass my armor's defense. I recognize it immediately as an Air Strike series and prompted to ignore it since its power was low.

Motoyasu takes advantage of my pause in attention to put his spear under my shield and slams it upward. My arm flies up along with the shield and I turn my head once more to see Motoyasu pull back for another strike, his spear once again transforming into another.

"Iron Striking Spear!" With aloud exclamation, his spear flies forward to dig deep into my unprotected side. I furrow my brow and berate myself for my inattentiveness before activating my shield's power.

At once, time stops completely and everything around me freezes up in movement. I took my time to get out of spearpoint while thinking up of a plan. Originally, I figured that I would just pin him down quickly and not let him move until he gives up. Now in hindsight, that would raise too much questions. One being how I got so strong which would then lead to another load of trouble, especially now that the Three Heroes Church is still active.

Maybe I can tire him out in a battle of attrition. The Shield Hero is known for their high status boosting and recovery spells. If I were to use it in the most eye catching way possible while showing blatant "fairness", the Trash won't be able to overrule my victory... If only I can summon my demons, this would be so much easier. Too bad that will more likely than not give Trash and the Three Heroes Church more propaganda materials. I have enough problems as is.

"Well, let's get this problem over with." Positioning myself back to where I was before the time freeze with an extra bit of breathing space. I undo my shield's power and "stumble" back to dodge Motoyasu's lunge. With some room between us, I initiated my plan.

"I am the hero who commands the origin of power-" And it's only now that I remember the fact that I can't use anything above a Zveit level spell without raising an eyebrow or two. Leaning sideways to dodge another of Motoyasu's speedy charges, I groan internally. This duel is going to take forever.

* * *

Cling-cling-cling

"Welcome to- it's you isn't it, lad?" Without even coming out from the back of his shop to the counter, the Old Man predicted my presence with pinpoint accuracy.

"It was actually Rapthtalia who walked in first." Of course, since I'm feeling rather happy from one upping Trash, I give the Old Man some of my happiness in the form of smart assery. It came out slightly flat though and lacked the sarcasm that I was looking for.

"Well what is it going to be this time? New armors for the girls? Another weapon repair after that crusade you've made against the monsters of the wave I've heard so much about?" Great, words have passed to here already. That means I can visit some of the other shops now that they are less biased against my presence. Perhaps I should check to see if Kiel have any magical affinity this time around. None of my slaves in the past showed any interest in magic so I never checked.

"New weapons and armors for the girls like usual... and a new set of armor for myself would be nice." As much as I hate to admit it, a drawn out battle with Motoyasu really took a lot out of me, or rather, my armor. Status enhancing spells can only do so much before it reaches a limit and the blond really took his time to find that limit before conceding his victory. Really, the duel that didn't last ten minutes last time took three hours this time.

"Got it, new toys for the girls and new armor for... you? Lad, did I just hear that right?" The Old Man gives me a look of absolute incredulity as he hands Kiel and Raphtalia some pre-prepared gears. I feel like I missed something, what did I miss? As Raphtalia and Kiel goes to fit in their gears, I give the Old Man a raised eyebrow and a precariously slow nod. In return, he gives me a wide mischievous grin and says. "So the legendary Hero of the Shield finally gave in and decided to ask little old me for proper gears huh? Did your training gear not have enough defense for you preference."

"...There's nothing little about you. Old, yes. Little, no." I narrow my eyes to glare at him. He just takes it in like a compliment and glow in pride before asking me if I had any preferences. I asked him to make a Barbarian Armor and he only gives me a wide smile before telling me he'll have it by the end of the day.

* * *

"Welcome Hero-sama~ Back so soon already?" After leaving Raphtalia and Kiel to pick up some supplies for the upcoming trip around Melomarc so that I can set up connections for the village's future trading routes, I went to the Slave Dealer to (hopefully) pick up Firo's egg and possibly a few of Rurorona's previous residents. As always, the Slave Dealer found me before I could find him and ushered me into his domain without a fuss. "What do you need my service for today Hero-sama?"

"I want to check up on how the search for the people I'm looking for is going." Keeping my face carefully devoided of emotions (a sadly easy task considering I have a perma-scowl) I walk around the front of his tent with an appearance of vague interest at his wares. I honestly don't remember where he keeps his Gatcha eggs and I hope to only find the correct one with the correct egg.

"I've contacted my clan in Zeltbull and requested them to do an inventory search for any slaves with your requirements. A letter from the main branch replied that they have a few slaves who fit and will send the over to me in short order. You will have to wait for a few more days before they come Hero-sama. There will be more once the side branches in other towns send a reply but that will be a while more." Following me in my search, the Slave Dealer shows off his side business as a Monster Dealer while catching me up to speed. It sounds around the same as last time so I guess I should not be too surprise. On that note, I will have to visit Ryuuto Village once more before our trip to give instructions to the village mayor when the slaves come in.

"I see... Then that's all, the slaves will probably come in around the same time as my journey throughout the country so send them to this village. The Mayor there will take them in until I come back." Pulling out a map from my shield, I point down on where the village is and the Slave Dealer nods to the instruction. Since the money is paid in advance, he only needs to send the slaves there to compete his part of the deal.

"Hmm? Are these monster eggs on sale?" Putting the map away again, I turn to leave and "caught" something from the corners of my eyes. The Slave/Monster Dealer energetically jumps on the train to making more income and introduces me to his Monster Gatcha system.

"Thank you for coming~." In the end, I bought two eggs since I wasn't sure which one was the one I was looking for. If I remembered correctly, Firo's egg matched her Pre-Queen coloring and there was two eggs with that same exact color. I was only halfway confident that the eggs were even Philorial eggs to begin with... I should order my demons to start gathering their food shouldn't I?

* * *

"Welcome back to our humble village, Hero of the Shield-sama." As I walk towards Ryuuto village, the old mayor greets me at the entrance.

I returned his greetings and asked if the village needed any help reconstructing from the small damage that was done earlier during the wave. The old mayor waves off my offer to help and in return, asks if I needed anything from them. I told him about the slaves that were coming and asks if he could give them some jobs and meals while I was out. The old mayor agreed easily enough and didn't even attempt to look at the money I had prepared for his help.

I left the village to return to castle town half an hour after I had straighten out job opportunities the slaves could take on with the mayor. On my trudge back, I glare at my shield to will it to give me teleporting powers. It innocently did nothing and offered to use time freeze. I took up the offer out of spite and returned to town "two minutes" later.

While the shield is amazingly powerful, it still lacks in variability compare to the Legendary Shield. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

* * *

"...Nii-chan, this place smells funny." Walking besides me, Kiel scrunches her nose in aversion to the smell of herbs and grounded powders that permeates from the alchemy shops' walls.

"Just ignore it for a bit. We'll be out of here after I'm done." I needed some funds for traveling and I've decided that it was good time to sell some of the stocks I have compiled within my shield's infinite hammer space. Even though it's only been a few days since I have decided to compound something that doesn't have the words Yggdrasil Medicine in its name, I've amassed enough herbal remedies and potions to back up an army.

"...Why do we have to go to these places?" Wiping the smell out of her nose, Kiel turns towards me as we walk through castle town's street.

"We need travel money and trading is currently our best source of income." I simply state while looking around for the magic shop which sold the shape shifting clothes Firo worn the last time around. Since I'm starting my trip through the country early, I will probably have Firo fully grown halfway through. Most likely, I will have to get a decent cart at one of the villages and come back here later to get a stronger cart from the Old Man. I will also have to give him the schematic for the cart's design later when I pick up my armor as well.

"I don't see why money's so important right now since you said we're going around the country to trade." Kiel points out a flaw in my argument as I spot the magic shop and walk towards it.

"We're not really trading as to more of building connections. If I get a good reputation at the places I'm peddling in, I'll have more willing customers the next time I come by. Once I rebuild Rurorona Village, those trade routes and connections will be our main source of income." I explain to her my plans and she simply pouts. I don't know if she understands the important of it yet but I feel like she at least understands the main point. In truth, the journey itself is more important then the destination as I now have the knowledge and skills to train my party. I will make them the strongest so that they can protect themselves. That has been my main goal from the beginning, money was only a side objective.

"...I don't get it but can we get lunch after this?" And of course, Kiel completely disregards all my subtle efforts at teaching in exchange for food. I pat her on her head and bought what I needed from the magic shop's manager. For Raphtalia, I bought some books on Light and Dark magic as well as a book on illusion usage combat tactics. For Kiel, I bought a book on beginner's earth magic since the magician shopkeeper told me of her intermediate affinity for that element along with a great affinity for beastmen magic. It was unfortunate that the shop did not hold any books on demi-human's magic.

"Can you find Raphtalia? I'll go order our meals beforehand." After ordering the shape-shifting clothes from the magician shopkeeper and handing the necessary materials over. I left the shop with yet another appointment to come back later for a pick up.

"Un! Can we get more meat this time, Nii-chan?" Agreeing immediately to the idea of food, Kiel uses her puppy dog eyes in an attempt to get me to feed her her favorite type of food, not vegetables. I give her a deadpan look before telling her that I will buy something with more meat on the side and she runs off energetically in a seemingly random direction. Checking the ally locator function on my map, I give a tiny sigh of relieve as I see Kiel making a beeline towards Raphtalia.

Checking through the supplies that Kiel gave me, I found an assorted stock of meat. Grumbling a bit to myself, I went to the marketplace to buy some vegetables before taking a trip to the plains to collect some herbs. I plan on making a large barbeque before I leave, since it would probably appease Kiel into lethargy for a good part of the first day of the journey.

"...I hope Raphtalia bought some vegetable supplies as well. Otherwise, it won't be the wave that's killing us off. It'll be our meat only diet..."

* * *

Challenge to put in the story!

*Have this version of Naofumi be as confusing as possible in characterization. At times he is happy, at others he is sad. Sometimes he is anguishing, while others her laughs like mad. Case in point, this Naofumi is suffering from guilt, a sudden missing dose of wrath (Curse of the Wrath Shield), losing all that he's built, having minor bouts of personality issues and living in a time where his arch-nemesis reign supreme. Not a happy time for the guy.

*Characters will behave slightly different since their interaction with Naofumi will be heavily modified. Basically, our Shield Hero is going to mother hen everyone and everyone his Naofumi's chick. Nothing touches Naofumi's chicks. _Nothing_!

*Homulilly's Shield allows for Naofumi to access all of Homerun's powers, all of it. When will he use it is the main question, if, he hasn't already used it on a certain deity like spirit. R.I.P Spirit of the Shield, you shall forever remain in our hearts... and Naofumi's shield.

*Have fun writing the story~!


	6. NarutoTensei: Blondy's Goofing Off Again

#6) Naruto crossover with Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu plot bunny attack~!

**1) Death**

"Ah, I'm sorry Hinata. It looks like I'll have to wait for you there..."

"Don't worry honey. Save your energy."

"Hehehe, that's still one thing I have a lot of you know. Boruto."

"Yeah dad?"

"That care of the family okay? It's up to you to become the man of the house now."

"I'm already doing that even without you telling me, old man."

"Hehehe, keep it up then. Hey Sasuke, don't make me wait on the other side, kay?"

"...Like you could actually sit still for long enough, dobe."

"Cough. Yeah, you're probably right on that one. Take care of the village, alright? Don't make me Edo Tensei myself back to life to kick your ass."

"Just go to sleep already dobe. It'll hurt less, for both your sake and my ear's."

"A bastard til the end huh. Whatever, I'll be seeing ya. Remember, I love you all."

With his final tidings given to the ones he loves and trusts the most. The seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf village closes his eyes and passes on happily to the afterlife. His chest falls as his last breath escapes him and he slumps into the bed he was on with a serene smile.

Surrounding him, his wife gives a silent, almost untraceable sob, his son lowers his head and grips his father's hand one last time and his brother in all but blood flow chakra into his mystical eyes to send the Hokage off, as per the blonde's last request.

With a fast sink into the inky nothingness that opened up under the blonde but above the bed, the former Hokage disappears to a place not even Sasuke could know off. Everyone who could've sense the death of the blonde lowers their heads to give a small moment of silence and a farewell prayer. Further beyond the oceans of the Elemental Nations, nine gargantuan beasts turns their heads towards where the blonde last existed and give their own sendoff tidings. After a moment, all of them, save for one large fox, returned to doing the task they had at hand.

**"May your journey to the afterlife fare you well, Naruto." **The giant nine tailed fox sadly growls at nothing in particular and lays to rest its head on its front paws. If a moment of silence is to show respect for the passed, then the fox is willing to stay in silence for as long as forever to show his respect for the blonde.

**2) Family**

_'Well, this is... new? Is that the right word?'_

"Who's a good little boy, you! Oh yes you are~ Oh yes you are~."

_'Yup, I never got called that before. I'm also pretty sure you're not suppose to hold a baby like this. Whoa! I'm definitely sure throwing babies doesn't come until they can crawl!'_

"That's right! You're a good boy aren't you!"

_'...Hehehe, this is actually kinda fun, WHEEE~!'_

"Master Adam! That is not how you treat a child!"

"Eh~? Don't worry Lucine, Noa is a strong boy. He's my son after all!"

_'Oi, don't say that and accept it like a normal adult. I swear, if you drop me on my head I will- OH GOD NO!'_

"NOA!"

_'Oof!'_

"...Adam, would you care to explain to me why I just caught our son flying into my arms?"

"Ehehehe, well, you see... I'llgochecktoseeifwehaveanymorefirefuelbye!"

"Oh no you don't! Get back here mister! Lucine, please look after Noa."

"Of course, Madam Merilette."

_'Wow, Adam isn't any Yellow Flash but he sure can run.'_

**3) Connection**

_'So apparently there's a wait time between when someone dies and when the Shinigami comes to collect the dead person's soul. There's also a vague connection from the soul to the body even after the death. Something to ground down the soul so that it doesn't wander off before the Shinigami comes if I'm correct. _

_That was the problem. Sasuke should've waited a bit before he sent me away to gods knows where here is! Doesn't the guy have any decency? I even asked him to wait after the funeral procession! Lazy prick probably just doesn't want to go because he's too cool to crowd._

_Even so... I'm pretty sure this isn't how reincarnation work... or is this transmigration? I'm sure Kurama talked about the theory behind it a few times in the past. I can't remember it too well though... must be old age. Yup, old age. Not because I wasn't paying attention or anything, it's old age.'_

"Noa? Are you still awake honey? Go to sleep..."

_'You shouldn't have put me down for nap time earlier then. I'm filled to the brim with energy now. I can't sleep even if it's midnight!'_

"...ZZZ..."

_'Haaaa, being a two month old baby is boring~'_

**4) First**

_'Kuh! You think you can stop me? You've got nothing against me, you hear me? Nothing!'_

"That's it Noa! You're almost there! You can do it!"

_'Let me concentrate dad! This is my first monumental battle in this world! Take this gravity, Rahhh!'_

"Adam, what's all this racket abou- Oh? Noa is already walking?"

"Yup! He's starting it early. I expected nothing less from my boy! Isn't that right Noa! Let's go celebrate!"

_'Haaa... haaa...haaa, it was a tough battle. But I finally got my first step against gravity. This is good enough for today I guess.'_

"Oh no you don't, Noa is suppose to be having a nap soon and you have a meeting with the town mayor in an hour for your job. Go get dress."

"But Noa wants to spend some more time with me~ Isn't that right Noa? You want some more time with daddy right?"

_'Yawnnnnnn, yeah. A nap sounds good right about now.'_

"You heard him, go get ready."

"Alright, fine..."

"...Haah. Noa, please don't grow up to be as childish as your father."

_'I wasn't planning to mom. I learned the hard way as a Hokage that childishness only causes me more work. That's also why I didn't go painting the Hokage Mountain with Boruto when he was small. Those would've been some fine father son bonding right there... Yawwnnnnnn.'_

"Well, let's put you to bed."

_'Yes, let's.'_

**5) Discovery**

_'Huh, so the shadow Clones Jutsu does work. I thought I would've needed more chakra. Apparently not.'_

Naruto raises a finger and pokes his clone on the nose which causes the clone to slap the offending hand away in indignation. The blonde yips a bit in pain and glares at the clone. The clone recompenses with a glare of his own. After a few tense moments, Naruto looks away with a pout and an order for the blonde clone to see which jutsus he can still use in his "condition".

Ten minutes later, the blonde happily flops into his bed with a satisfied sigh. He has discovered that his basic move set is largely unchanged. Shadow Clones was still viable if he did it in small amounts. The henge and kawarimi works as it always has. The Rasengan looks a bit malnourished but that's only because his body doesn't house an ocean of chakra to spare and his basic chakra control is not that bad.

Needless to say, the blonde is pretty happy with his discovery.

**6) Reading**

_'Okay good, my mom's not a scholar, she's a hoarder.'_

Flipping through a few pages of individual books that he managed to "borrow" from his mother and replace with fake henged shadow clones, Naruto tries to read the strange new text and understand the new language. He has never been very adept as being a visual learner so it takes him time to discern the differences in text patterns and how they connect to what few pictures are drawn in the books.

Even with six other clones out doing the task alongside him, Naruto still haven't made much of a breakthrough for the last few weeks. Hearing and understanding is one thing but learning to read from scratch is something else entirely.

_'So this book is about... swordsmanship?'_

Though he said not much progress, he is still at a point where he can read and understand some of the basics lettering, the bare minimum to understanding the gist of the books. From his perspective, the words start making sense after he looks at it for a long enough time. He's not exactly sure how this worked out but he didn't question the sudden increase in ability to understand things.

_'Oh? A book about natural medicine? I might be able to relate with that more.'_

A shadow clone pops to tell Naruto of his new discovery and the blonde crawls over to where the book was left sitting. As he sits, he creates another clone to keep up on trying to read the swordsmanship book while he reads the one about the healing herbs. Though he wasn't actively aware of it through his fervor for learning the new language, the maximum amounts of clones he could create steadily rose with each passing use.

**7) Learning**

_'I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner.'_

Looking back in hindsight, it would've been a lot quicker if he had just sat down with his mother and get her to read some of her books for him. In all honesty, that thought had never crossed his mind. Well... technically, it did, since it was one of his clone who suggested the idea, after spending a good month and a half trying to decrypt the walls of handwritten text.

"And this is the Hyphicaena Onghinba, a naturally growing plant in the island isles off of the Bagaritt Continent. It is one of the special plants that's use as a regent for the..."

Though he's definitely learning to read at an accelerated pace compared to his last endeavor, he now faces the problem of not knowing what the heck he's reading. Strange words pops up from time to time and each time he hears one, he gets a bit more lost.

On the bright side, his mother is energetically teaching things to him without even once questioning if he can understand these things or not and this helps with his reading ability, to a certain extent.

The family's maid, Lucine, sighs on more than one occasion when she sees her madam go off on another tangent and almost made to rescue her young charge one time until she noticed that her lord, Adam, is seriously doing his job now that the young lord is not there to occupy his time. After weighing the choices of potential trauma to her young charge or some peace for once now that her lord is doing his work properly, she left her madam to continue her tangent to the infant. At least the boy looks interested in what is being explained to him, even if it makes about as much sense to her as it did to him.

**8) Appearance**

_'So this is what I look like. Huh, I thought I'd look the same as before but apparently not.'_

While on one of his many adventures through the house under his parent's nose, Naruto happens to pass by a large mirror in a closet area. For once, he got a good look at what he actually looks like after five months.

Similarly to his past life, he took on the appearance of his father in this life. Semi-spiky locks of brownish blonde hair sticks out from his scalp to cover a light skin colored face. He took the warm brown eyes of his mother and the quirky edge on her lips when she smiles.

_'Still, I guess I can see the resemblance. These weird hair spikes for one.' _

He turns around to get a better full body look at himself and tries to flatten his hair a few times to see if he could push down the spikes. His hair still stubbornly stood out after many attempts and he just about gave up when something catches his eyes.

Within his many blonde locks lies a single streak of green. Before he could contemplate it anymore however, footfalls sounds out near the closet area and he made to quickly hide himself. It wouldn't do to have anyone catching him during his supposed nap time after all.

**9) Dinner**

"Say ahhh Noa~"

_'Dad, I may be stuck in a body of an infant but I'm not stupid. There's no way I'm saying "ahhh" for mash vegetables.'_

Because he gave the impression that he grows fairly quickly, Naruto's mother decided to ween him off of breast milk quickly as well and suggested to giving him solid food. Of course, since he's also teething, Lucine thought it would be best to give him vegetables with high nutrients for growing bones cooked in some sort of animal milk. The maid's thoughts for his welfare warms his heart and all but not enough that would make him eat the gunk in front of him.

"...Come on~ Open your mouth, Lucine's cooking is really awesome y'know~ The best in all of the Central Continent!"

_'Oh yeah? Then why don't you have some!'_

Moving with quick ease, Naruto snatches the spoon that's loosely held in his father's hand, shoves it into the grown man's mouth, dumps the content in said mouth and pulls out to use it to slap him under his chin.

The action was surprising enough that it causes Adam to close his mouth and swallow the strange gruel involuntarily. His eye widen and his face contorts into shock, surprise and then lemon lipped. He joins his son in the pleading puppy dog eyes against the feeding of the strange baby food mixture.

"Haah, I'll go heat up the milk." Lucine holds her composure against the puppy eyes of doom for a grand total of three seconds before caving in and taking away the meal she had prepared for her young lord. Since it was her first time making baby food, she didn't know how to make it delicious for him and apparently fail in her attempt. Because Merilette is still eating her meal, Lucine decides to not let her be bothered with breastfeeding and goes to heat up some of the leftover milk from she has from her attempt at making baby food.

_'Kukuku, just as planned.'_

As the young maid turns her back, Naruto smiles Orochimaru-like and chuckles darkly in his head.

**10) Maid**

"Young master? What are you doing here?"

_'Ah crap, she caught me.'_

While on another one of his many adventures around the house, Naruto found an interesting looking leather back book hidden behind some other books in his mother's "library" and decided to take a look. He got extremely absorbed into it since the book itself is similar to a guide on how to use elemental chakra manipulation in a way that he has never heard of: Magic and Spells.

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep? You should not wander around like this without adult supervision young master!"

As the maid chides him for not being where he was supposed to be, the blonde secretly cancels the shadow clone currently occupying his bed at this very moment and internally sighs in relieve when the memory withdraw informs him that nobody went to check up on him the last twenty minutes.

"Haah, I guess I should've been checking up on you more often. Hmm? What are you reading, young master?"

_'Some book on chakra control that I don't understand. Can you read it to me? Half of it didn't make any sense when I tried.'_

Lucine picks up the book on the ground in front of him and flips through a few pages. She closes it with a thump and looks down at me with more then a bit of surprise in her eyes and expression.

"I know that you've learned to somewhat read from madam Merilette but to think that you're already dabbing into magic at six months of age. Will your blood never cease to amaze young master?"

She mumbles something and sets the book aside so that she can carry him. Halfway down the hall to his room, she breaks out of her trance and smiles brightly while looking at the infant in her arms.

"Do you want to see magic in real life young master?"

She offers up a presentation and Naruto nods immediately to the idea with a squeaky "Yes!" accompanying it. She has apparently predicted his answer and instead of continuing down the hall, she makes a left turn to the courtyard. After opening the lawn door, she sets him on to the grass and walks off to put a log onto the tree stump which his father uses to cut wood for fire fuel. She then walks back to me and pulls out a slender stick from her sleeve. He was impress at how well she hid it, seeing as she had been carrying him with it on her body without him noticing.

"Alright, young master, the spell I'm presenting to you today is an elementary rank water class spell. If you wish to try, please tell me before so that I can watch over you and guide you through the proper procedure, alright young master?"

She bends over to make eye contact with her blonde charge and begins to ask him a question that will decide whether or not he will be allowed to learn magic. Of course, he nods an affirmative and she smiles at his eagerness.

"Very well, I shall start now."

_'Eh? But what about a water source? I thought all water jutsu needs a source unless you have a lot of chakra to use.'_

Unknowing of her small observer's confusion, Lucine raises her hand wand and begins focusing mana into it.

"Bestow the protection of water on the place thee demandest, let thine crystal clear flow here, WATER BALL"

An orb of water merge from dozens of tiny droplets, each appearing from thin air, at the tip of the wand and shoots itself at breakneck speed before hitting the wooden log with a loud crack. The maid then lowers her wand and looks back at the wide eyed boy in more than a bit of satisfaction at his expression.

"Young master, would you like a try?"

The young maid asks her charge after a while and offers him a wand. He numbly stares at her still with wide eyed amazement. His only thought being

_'To be able to pull water from the very air itself and use it at will without breaking a sweat... Did my maid just pull off a Second Hokage?!_

**11) Spell**

_'Advance elemental manipulation is not supposed to be this easy, ttebayo!'_

"That's it young master, you've stabilized it well. Now let the leftover remains of the mana you've put into the spell disperse from the tip of the wand and eject your spell."

Standing outside of the house, Naruto takes aim at the log before him and follow his maid's/magic instructor's advice. He pushes the chakra that had built on the end of the stick in his hand and watches as the ball of impossible water glides through the air and hit the wood piece. Behind him, his dad gives a loud round of applause and his mother smile with a hint of pride mix in with a lot of proudness. Exasperatingly, he turns around and gives a large bow while saying squeaky "Thank yous" to his audience.

"Good job on accomplishing your first spell, Noa! Not even a year old yet and you're already becoming a master magician huh? You do your father proud!"

After Naruto returns the stick that Lucine had handed him for using the spell, Adam immediately rushes towards his firstborn son and gives the boy a large hug. His mother walks in after a bit and gives him her own hug. Lucine stood back and smile. Mentally, he made note to skip the next bedtime in order to look over the differences between jutsus and magic.

That train of thought was cut off when Adam accidentally threw him too high again.

**12) Magic**

After days of re-reading the book on elementary ranked spells and a few magic lessons with Lucine, Naruto can now confidently say that he has no idea how it works. He understood the basics of both jutsus and magic, weave a few hand signs and chant a few lines to blow up the things that needed blowing up. Anything after that basic formula however, is a mystery to him.

The differences were easily noticeable. In jutsus, the more chakra added and maintained, the more powerful it becomes. It works perfectly in utility since chakra shape manipulation can give the jutsu any form it's needed for. In magic however, the spell chanted decides the limit of chakra (or mana) for the user, and gives no leeway to change. It works perfectly in variety since spells are numerous and has many times more useful effects compared to jutsus, elementally wise.

He does have a few theories however but none were really concrete since he was never much of a theorist himself. His most reliable one is the fact that chakra usage was made differently from one dimension to another. In the Elemental Nations, the Sage of Six Path taught Ninshu which evolves into ninjutsu. Perhaps magic is the same, taught down from someone then evolved into what it is today.

Whatever the case, he couldn't help but be jealous of how easy it is to create water using Magic. The month long harsh lessons under that waterfall seems kind of pointless now. He didn't pout over lost time however, Hokages don't pout.

**13) Dad**

"Noa~ Looky looky! Daddy's home and he brought a Ferskun!"

One day, Adam comes back from his work for the mayor of the town calling out to his son while opening the walkway into the house from the yard. Said son pokes his head out from the book that he currently has covering him and whistles loudly at the giant carcass his dad is lugging around unassisted on his shoulder. The creature looks like some drunken god mixed a bear's head onto the body of a deer while still keeping the antler. The scaly hind leg and claws only made it look more impressive. The young blond read about it once. Supposedly, the antlers can be used to make a powerful Advance-ranked healing potion bordering on Saint-rank strong since it was rumored to be strong enough to reattach limbs.

"I know right! The mayor's been talking about some crops and livestock disappearing and hired me to take care of it. Turns out it was a wandering Ferskun! You should've been there Noa, daddy was awesome!"

_'I'll bet, that thing looks pretty muscular for a lean bodied frame and bone structured animal. Would've fit right in with high mid-class summons in the Elemental Nations.'_

"But before I tell you how awesome I was, give me a hug! I've miss you so much~! Did you miss daddy? You did didn't you!"

Mightily tossing the carcass of the once strong and powerful beast aside, Adam runs up to his son and pulls him in for a big bear hug. Naruto chooses to relax his body and lets himself be pulled into the hug. Even if he was rolling his eyes at the man, his father deserved at least some compliance. The man must have worked hard to track down the beast since it lives in the forest areas a day's worth of walking away. Him coming back, with the carcass, after only three days is extremely fast.

"Such noisiness... Welcome home, Adam"

"I'm home Meri~! Lookie, lookie! I got you a pair of Ferskun antler and some herbs from the eastern forest!"

Merilette's eyes immediately lights up and locks onto the scaly behind of the dead carcass the moment Adam mentions it and she gives her husband a quick "welcome back" kiss on the cheek before practically glomping the dead corpse. Adam took it in stride and accepted the hurried welcome with a wide smile before pushing his full attention back on his son.

_'Oi, what's up with this dysfunctional relationship! Go hug your wife not me!'_

**14) Merilette**

_'So mom was actually a researcher?'_

With each day spent in the strange family he's landed himself into, Naruto starts to figure that he'll never figure out everything. First is a pointy eared maid/magic instructor who claims to have served his family for more than three generations while still looking to be in her early thirties at most. Next is his lackadaisical father whom is apparently some sort of super samurai/monster hunter. Now it's his mother whom he'd thought to be a huge bookaholic but is actually a researcher with a wide variety field.

"Noa, did I ever tell you about our reclusive family?"

_'Nope, not that I can think of.'_

Merilette is a strange one, she's always detached yet always attentive. At times she would spend hours alone in her library just reading while at others, spend hours just keeping anyone who's in the house accompanied. At times she would just walk up to Adam and nap on his lap. At times she would stalk behind Lucine for hours on end and help with chores. At times she would play with him and watches him "sleep" only for him to "wake up" again so that she can continue playing. In short, she's even more of a challenge to understand than both his maid and his father. And today, she decides to tell him family stories while dealing with some strange mixture that he's sure is not supposed to be beeping.

"The Olstein family is an old one which is supposedly predated back to the the Laplace War in legends. Perhaps it's true, perhaps it's false but we have some books within the library which claims to have been re-written from the original texts dating back to then. Whichever the case, I guess our family is an old one. At the same time though, we're also hermits."

_'...Hermits is synonymous to sage and I technically am the son of the Sage of Six Path. Now I'm the son to yet another sage... Coincidence? I think not!'_

"Rather than attempting to attain a good stature in society or obtain more acknowledgement, we did the exact opposite. We withdrew ourselves into our studies. Did you know Noa? All these books within this library was written and re-written by our ancestor. Some claiming to predate back from the time of legends to almost modern. This is... the pride of our family."

_'Really? You don't seem to be very prideful of it with that sad smile you know?'_

"Noa, when you grow up. Take after your father, okay?"

With a strange request, Merilette returns to her research and leaves Naruto to sit on the couch she had laid him on. Lucine walks in not ten minutes later to carry him out as well as dropping off a pot of tea for Merilette. His mother never seemed to have notice him leaving.

**15) Conspiracy**

"Lucine... is dad strong?"

"Lord Adam is most likely the strongest swordsman I've had the pleasure of meeting in life."

"He that strong?"

"Yes, he has obtained the title of Sword God Style Saint quite early in life and I believe that his strength diminished in no way even after marrying the madam."

"But, he doesn't train..."

"Well... I'm sure he... The lord must probably have some sort of hidden training schedule... maybe?"

"He only uses a sword when he's working."

At this point in their conversation, Naruto points at Adam who is literally sprawled out on the grass sleeping in the yard snoring his head off. This is a relatively normal scene since Adam makes it a habit to always lay down at around noon and sleep if he's free of chores and work.

"Perhaps... that is part of the lord's training."

"Part of his training?"

"Yes, throughout my various years serving your mother and her family, I've come across various text and preferences mentioning obscure sword styles that does not fit in with any known standard style or is a distant branch of the main styles. Perhaps the lord is training in one of the branch style of Sword God Style."

"Wait, I remember reading a style like this in one of the achieved books. I think it was called... the True Strike Style. A distant branch of the Sword God Style in which the user focus their everything for exactly one quick, powerful and deadly attack."

"Focusing everything... Does that mean... that the lord is not actually sleeping but is saving energy for when he needs it?"

"He could very well be saving his strength for the next time the mayor calls on him. What a fearsome technique, to be able to be charged so far ahead of time."

With their conclusion drawn, both the maid and her young charge nods at each other and leaves Adam alone in his "preparation" for the upcoming fight that he may of may not have.

**16) Bird**

"Hmmm? What do you have in your hand Noa? Are those Kirlets?"

_'Five baby Kirlets actually. Ones, that I've somehow imprinted onto myself. Don't let their looks fool you though, they're not even an hour old.'_

On one of his few trips outside of the house without anyone's assistance/attendance, Naruto came upon a small ruined Kirlet nest. There were a few broken eggs of varying contents, some blood and bones and six almost undamaged eggs. Quickly figuring out what happened, the blonde checks on the condition of the surviving eggs and finds that five of them are almost ready to hatch safely while the last is too "scrambled" to save.

Embedding some Yang based chakra (a property that he picked up from being an Ashura Transmigrant) into the shells, Naruto reinforces the life force of the animals inside and allowed them a one way expedite trip out of their shells. He might've overdone it however since what came out of the eggs weren't small dull green baby fowls but five fully grown (or rather, overgrown) birds.

_'I think this happened once in the Elemental Nations... Wasn't it that time when I was taking care of Old Man Gamaman's tadpole? Yeah, I grew him up to be a ten meter tall, fire breathing toad within an hour on complete accident. That one didn't turn out well.'_

Naruto wonders about the abnormal growth as five colorful 140 centimeter birds fly around his dad giving the man play pecks while he panics and runs to escape them.

_'Well, at least they're not breathing fir- nevermind... I hope Lucine will let me keep them.'_

**17) Name**

"From now on, you shall be known as Ichi, you shall be Ni, you shall be San, you shall be Yon and you shall be Go."

After a few large servings of puppy dog eyes for everyone and a large hug from his father, everyone consented to let Naruto keep the small flock of birds so long as they didn't try to burn down the house or anything important. Once inside his room, the birds lines up on the headboard of Naruto's crib/bed and looks at him expectantly.

Seeing as he couldn't differentiate them at all, he asks jokingly if they could line up age wise and they surprise him by rearranging themselves from youngest to oldest. He also asks if they could talk, just out of caution, but they shook their heads and chirps out a small ball of fire.

A few more odd questions later and a few changes in perch locations, Naruto decides that it's best to give them names so that he could at least call them apart. Sure the names he gave them might be viewed as a lazy attempt but in his opinion, his native language didn't exists so he's technically being very creative. Go gives him a doubtful look and a small puff of fire to his face. For something with a birdsbrain, Go is pretty adept at calling out his lies.

**18) Hunting**

"Ichi, San, Go, circle around and corner him. Ni, up top. Yon, with me"

With fives nods and a bit of rustling, Naruto's flock of birds descends upon their mutual prey. As instructed, three of the birds went in different directions while circling in while one ascends towards the high heaven.

Once at the peak of its flight, Ni turns and flaps its wings mightily for a powerful descendant. The prey notices the danger immediately through instinct and dodges Ni's nosedive charge at the last moment. The prey immediately was trapped by the three who circled around and could only go in one direction to evade. Towards Naruto and Yon.

"Geh! Kirlets?! Noa?!"

With ten quick strides and a loud "Dattebayo!" Adam's face got a new mud facial.

**19) One**

It's been one full year since Naruto's newest reincarnation/transmigration into the new world. In the past, he would've probably celebrate it with his close ones or at least let them treat him to something but this new world is different. Instead of once a year for a celebration, it's once for every five years up until the age of fifteen.

He didn't let the lack of celebration bring him or his birds down however and taught them the value of their birth date along with the fact that one is supposed to celebrate it every year with their closed ones. Go, being the one who can always somehow spot the blonde's lies and hidden half truths, gives him a "Really?" look the whole explanation and a bird equivalent of a shrug of its shoulder when the crash course on birthdays ended.

Once the explanation was done with, the birds all took off in different directions and left the blonde half-uttering about how he was going to spend the rest of the day with them as his celebration.

The birds came back at around dinner time through his bedroom window and the blonde went to bed finding five very shiny gifts. He almost cried as he charged them in tears and snuggled them up all in his arms when he finally slept, gift left on the table in favored of close interaction with those he wants to stay with. Around an hour later, he pulls out of bed and drags his five birds to the master bedroom while deciding that his parents could make babies later.

**20) Growth**

"My, my... Did you grow again young master?"

_'Eh? How would I know? I don't even have daily access to a mirror. Wouldn't you know more than me?'_

This scene happens very occasionally but not on the rank of time Lucine gives Naruto a bath, she would point out things about the blonde's physical feature that he never noticed himself. Things like fast growing hair to lost of body fat to growth in height.

"Yes, you've definitely grew three centimeter taller since the last time I've given you a bath and that was only four days ago too. You grow not only mentally but physically fast as well..."

_'Oi oi oi, stop looking at me with those eyes. You'd scare even Orochimaru with those things you know!'_

This scene happens very occasionally whenever Lucine gives her young charge a bath.

**21) Bonding**

BOOM!

"?! Meri, Noa! What happened?!"

"*Cough* Noa, please note down that Kirlet's dried feather mixed with grounded Hyfloswer and ten drops of distilled mana liquid will cause a exponentially larger and louder explosion than with nine drops but lesser in comparison to the soundless thirteen drops. I will set up the experiment for twelve drops."

"Un!"

"Ten drops? Twelve drops? What are you even talking abou- Meri! Is your hair on fire?! What is going on here?!"

"To answer your question in order Adam, I am talking about the the experiment that Noa and I set up, yes, my hair is still on fire thank you for pointing and putting it out and I am bonding with Noa over quality time together."

"...Your idea of mother son bonding involves massive explosions?"

"Massive explosions only occurred three out of four times, the other reaction is the creation of an Intermediate-rank toxin."

"...Noa? I had expected more common sense from you."

"Art is a bang."

"Yes, quite."

"...The both of you, go clean up. I'll air out the room of possibly poisonous gas."

""Yes father/honey~!""

**22) Magic crystal**

"Good conductor of chakra and is color coded to fit the elemental affinity. I wonder if the stone is a stone itself or if ore can come from it..."

Sitting on his bed in the middle of nap time, Naruto flips two magic crystals that his birds found for him on his request. Being birds, the Kirlets found the shiniest thing they could for him on his birthday as an offering and two sizable crystals came out of it. Afterwards, he asked if they could find him more and they respond by returning to the house with a crystal once every few days.

A few minor chakra experiments over the course of the weeks since then led him to the conclusion that the crystal is this world's version of chakra metal from the Elemental Nation. A natural source of conductor for external chakra. He's tried many things with the crystals so far. Grounding it up to create ink for sealing tags, mixing it together with Earth Manipulation to create more bulk and shape for weapons and plain blowing it up to test limitations. Only the last experiment yielded any good results however as the ink came out too grainy and reduced the sealing tag's effect to almost zilch and the final stone being too brittle to be anything but decorations.

"Not much I can do with this huh. Maybe if I- Ouch! Hey Ichi! Stop that! You guys don't need to collect more of these!"

His bird caws at him (he's pretty sure cawing is not a part of their natural anatomy) and flies out the window once more to look for more crystals. The blonde rubs his head and looks down at the lightly shining red crystal in his hand before tossing it under his crib along with all his other crystals. At first, he only wanted some to study but the birds took a liking to the collection hobby and made it a thing to collect as much as possible, with his room as the storage.

"...Aren't these things supposed to be rare?"

**23) Sword Saint**

"Ah Noa! Wanna watch daddy show you something cool~?"

_'Hmm..? No armors but has a sword... Training? Nah.' _

Looking up from a book that he has in his hand, Naruto watches his father curiously as he leans outside the doorway with his sword hanging loosely at his side. He has his ever-present grin on his face and a left thumb pointing outside towards the yard where Naruto sometimes practice magic with Lucine. Thinking for a bit, the blonde sets down his book and springs towards his father. The man's grin grew three times its usual size and he sweeps out into the yard.

"Alright, just sit over there and I'll show you something really cool. I've heard from Lucine and Meri that you've had a bit of an interest for the books in swordsmanship so I wanted to show you a presentation of it in real life. Sort of like what Lucine did with magic."

_'Oh, so that's it.'_

Naruto sends his father a look of interest and the man's smile glows. He points at the target, a log at a distance, with one hand and grabs his sword's handle with the other.

"Look closely~ Or you'll might... missed it."

With a flash of silver and a clink of metal on the word "might", the log standing at least twenty pace away from Adam is cleanly sliced into five equal sections. Naruto widens his eyes in slight disbelief as he spectate the scene and gives an internal applause at the display of skill. Even if his senses were horribly untrained compared to his last life, he could tell that the skill his father just demonstrated, "Longsword of Light", was watered down just enough for him to watch.

"Awesome right~? It took me forever to get the speed thing right but that's pretty much the gist of the Sword God Style! Hit hard, hit fast! Ahahaha!"

As he laughs, he sets the sword down and asked if the Naruto had liked the demonstration. The littlest blonde nods and Adam grins before asking if Naruto would like a try. Naruto nods vigorously at this and touches the sword that his father all but thrown at him. Before Naruto could do anything however, Meribelle catches Adam being Adam and chases him for handing Naruto something so dangerous. The man ran away in his best imitation of the Fourth Hokage.

* * *

Encyclopedia of Things

Monsters

Furskun: A Magic Beast native to the western parts of the Central Continent. A head of a bear on the body of a deer with antlers attached. It has claws as well as scales on its hind legs and is well known for its agility and evasiveness, both in and out of battle. It's horns is regularly used in the creation of higher tier healing potions. High D-rank to low C-rank on guild postings and B-rank on rarity.

Kirlets: A bird base Magic Beast native to the Central Continents. A regular sized Kirlet vary from 40 to 60 centimeters in length and has a wingspan of 110 centimeters but Naruto's is roughly 140 centimeters in length and has a wingspan of 310 centimeter. For unexplainable reasons, Naruto's five Kirlets has the ability to breath fire on the scale of an elementary rank fireball. Mid F-rank to low D-ranks on guild postings and F-rank on rarity.

Magic

Water Ball: A simple magical ball of water... or is it? Elementary ranked water spell.

Cast History (Unless stated otherwise, Naruto will be implied to have known this or have a basic grasp of the knowledge)

Meribelle Olstein: Born on Spring of K370. One of the remaining members of the dying Olstein household. She grew up in seclusion and developed a lack of common sense as well as a social apathy towards everyone, even her family. She has high intellect and a basic grasp in almost all fields of study (Orsted Wiki ver. 0.09) but no physical or magical talent. Met Adam on one of her few journeys to town in place of Lucine and fell in love at first sight. She tries to be more expressive upon the birth of Noa Olstein but would, more often than not, fall back to her default apathy.

Adam Olstein: Born on Winter of K372. An orphan at birth. He grew up in an orphanage within one the Fittoa Region. He joined the army at the age of fourteen and quickly rose in rank with his mastery in the ways of the sword. On one of his expedition through the lesser protected towns within the Fittoa Region, he chances by Meribelle and falls in love at first sight. He retired from his station and transferred over as a guard of the town to live with his wife who was adamant that she stays.

Lucine (?): Born on Summer of K213. A member of the magical elf race from the Demon Continents. Through currently unexplainable reasons, she came under the contract of the Olstein head at the time of K260 to serve the Olstein family for as long as they need. She is gifted in magic through long experience in using it and has a wide variety of knowledge to pull back on through years of serving the Olstein family.

Noa Olstein: Born on the spring Fall of K406. Is the firstborn son of Adam and Meribelle. Transmigrant of Naruto Uzumaki.

*Cannon starts at K407/Rudeus' birth so as of Chapter 4, the story is now around Cannon. Heil Roxy*


	7. Naruto: Uzumonogatari

#7) Random Naruto crossover with Monogatari plot bunny attack~!

"Ah, hello there, Araraga-san."

"Hachikuji, no matter how much you keep stuttering, you'll one day run out of word choices and will have to say my name correctly. Until then, I will repeat this and say that my name is Araragi."

I pick Hachikuji's petite body off of the ground and throw her into the air. She slacks her muscles and went with the flow, backpack and all.

"Sorry, I didn't stutter-"

"Of course you didn't, you did it on purpose."

I catch her on her way down and she tells me the shocking news.

"-I actually bit my tongue~!"

"It wasn't on purpose?!"

"Yup!"

She sticks out her tongue. How can a single being be so adorable? I think I might've turned a bit more deviant because of that action. It's decided, I will keep on carrying her until I bring her home. No, until time itself ends! Or at least, until my arms get tired.

"But anyways, what seems to be the occasion today? You're not riding your infamous bike right now so it must be something big, right? Right?"

Is my bike really infamous? Well, it did build up a reputation by being able to dent a light pole. Only three people, including me, saw that one occurrence, though. Then again, I'm the only person I know to ride a bike. Does that make me special? Does that make me more special than everyone else who whittles away at their pitifully short lives walking on their two legs?

"I sent my bike to a repair shop. It should be fixed up in a couple of days, according to the guy."

"Really? You've got to take care of your belongings more, you know."

I resent that. I'll have you know that the bike and I are bounded together forever. We're like two inseparable magnets, always attracting back towards each other even if removed. There's no way I wouldn't take care of my soulmate; my beloved bike.

For that comment, I threw her into the air again and again and again. She cackled like a maniac; a cute, elementary school girl shaped maniac.

"So are- you free- to hang out- with me?"

"It would seem like it. What do you want to do? Tsukihi-chan, my cute little sister, bought a game last week that we can play."

I catch her once more and stop throwing her. It's not because my arm was getting tired or anything silly as that. It's because she's hard to understand if I keep throwing her up and down.

"Eh, really? A fun game?"

"Yep, Tsukihi-chan and Karen-chan plays it all night, every night. It's bound to be fun. You interested?"

She perks at the mention of fun. Since her only form of entertainment is walking around town aimlessly and endlessly, listening listlessly to road talk and gossips, I guess that anything else would be a blessing; even if it means that she'll follow a strange man to his home to get said "entertainment." Not that I'm strange or anything.

"I'll even get you some snacks; popcorn, pudding, ice cream, candy-"

"Careful, Senpai, you're starting to sound like a pedophile baiting in a target."

A voice cuts in as I give Hachikuji a strong push to convince her to come to my lair, no wait, I mean my house. I clamp my mouth shut, making an audible clack with my teeth and tilt my head sideways to see who had spoken. Within my hands, I feel Hachikuji do the same.

My vision latches on to a blonde, twin tailed figure riding a bike at a leisurely pace. She is gazing in my direction so our eyes met, her blue to my dark brown. A moment passes by before she looks away and puts her sight back to the road she's peddling on. One of her hand leaves her bike's handle to give me a small wave.

"Hmm? A friend of yours, Araragi-san? She's right you know."

I shake my head in a negative manner for the first comment and some more for the second. There's no way I, someone who's holding and cradling an elementary school girl within my arms, could look like a lolicon. Before she gets too far away, I catch sight of the book bag on the luggage rack and the name tag attached to it.

After a moment, I turn away and give the girl in my hands my full undivided attention again. She's giving me a stare that I can't quite make out.

"Hey, Hachikuji. You know I'm not a lolicon, right?"

"We'll decide that after you let me down."

My arms suddenly felt very tired under her deadpan.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Araragi's Room-

"Uzumaki Naruko-san? Yes, I know of her. Why do you ask, Araragi-san?"

As always, I went to Hanekawa, my beloved information expert, to gather some intelligence after splitting up with Hachikuji. In the end, Hachikuji and I decided not to do anything at my house. The reason for it being if any of my family members were to see me having a self only party, I would look even more pitiful than I am now.

"Just curious. I met the person yesterday while talking to Hachikuji. She came out of nowhere and called me a lolicon before leaving."

"Did she have a reason for calling you a lolicon?"

Though Hanekawa's tone through the phone is plain sounding, a shiver runs up my spine. I decide, for my own safety, to tell her nothing.

"...Nothing comes to mind-"

An image of me lovingly throwing and catching Hachikuji passes by and kicks my conscience. Quickly, I must change topics before Hanekawa gets the quiff of fear from my voice!

"-Anyways, about Uzumaki-san!"

"About Uzumaki-san, hmm, where should I start?"

Unlike most other occasions, Hanekawa couldn't give me an exact answer and has to think about her reply to my request. Curiously, I ask her about it.

"Where to start? I don't need to know everything about her, Encyclo-kawa-san, just the interesting bits."

"Interesting bits? That really doesn't narrow it down."

She said it like she would of something that's caught her interest. Knowing Hanekawa, whatever catches her interest is bound to be strange in some sort of way. Because of that, the picture of Uzumaki Naruko within my head starts filling itself up with a bizarre color scheme.

"She's sounding like a colorful person already."

"Rather than colorful, I'd call her convoluted."

I blink. That's rare. Hanekawa almost never calls anyone anything that could even imply a derogatory note to the person of topic. Uzumaki Naruko's color scheme begins to change again, switching from the rainbowy chaos it was before to a uniformed mess of blue, yellow and orange.

"Convoluted?"

"Yes, besides what's on her student records, most of everything that I know about her are half facts and rumors."

"Like what?"

Hanekawa takes a deep breath on the other side of the phone. I brace myself for the incoming wave of information.

"The more plausible ones are: one, she's a super delinquent, capable of crushing a hundred gang members on her own. Two, she's a super genius who skips school out of sheer boredom. Three, she's a super hero who skips school to do good deeds, ranging from helping grandmas across the street to saving kittens from tree branches to rescuing maidens from burning buildings. Four, she's a super young looking martial artist who's only enrolling to school to look for a worthy disciple, but skips afterward due to having her expectations failed her."

I took a moment to take that in. Many retorts pop up within my mind when my brain finally process through all of what Hanekawa just told me.

"...You're right, that sounds ridiculously convoluted. The only things that stayed the same was her continued abstinence from going to class and the word super. Why does that word appear so much anyways? Is that her catchphrase or something?"

"According to rumors, no, that's not her catchphrase. That is just how people tend to describe her if she's the topic of a conversation."

Really? She's starting to sound like a badly made manga character from one of those cliche and long forgotten works.

"That's how people describe her? She sounds more like a disaster of a character in the making than anything super... Hey, Hanekawa, how come I've never heard of any of those rumors? I would definitely have remembered someone like Uzumaki Naruko if I hear about her but I didn't know anything about her until today."

I ask my informant a question that popped up in my mind a little while ago, along with my retort. Hanekawa said earlier that Uzumaki Naruko is a person who's surrounded her identity in rumors; a person who is famous enough to have multiple rumors going on about her at the same time. If that is so, even I, a person who almost never interact with others outside of his small group of friends, should at least have heard of her in the passing.

"That's not very surprising. You usually keep to yourself so it takes time for rumors to get to your ears if I never tell you."

That's completely true. I rely on Hanekawa for almost everything informational. In fact, it wouldn't be far off to say that I would probably be a hermit if it wasn't for Hanekawa. Saying that I'm a loner who knows nothing if not for Hanekawa is not enough, it would better be said that I'll die knowing nothing if not for Hanekawa.

"The rumors surrounding Uzumaki-san all started around the the beginning of this month, when she moved into town from another country and first transferred into class 2E of Naoetsu Private High School."

Ahhhh, so she continues to rack up her cliche counts; the amazing foreigner girl transfer student underclassmen who's shrouded in mysteries. I wonder if the person herself is keeping on her body a list of cliches that she needs to cross off. Does me taking notice of her cross off another cliche? I am proud to say that I could make a very good main character for her to cast with.

"...She managed to get this much attention in less than a month?"

"I wouldn't get anything out of lying to you Araragi-san."

Well, I supposed you wouldn't. It's not like you would be able to find enjoyment in tricking someone who's completely ignorant about something and making them go through life thinking that your lie is the truth. No, the saint like, all knowing Hanekawa wouldn't do something like that at all.

"I don't know everything. I only know what I know."

"Did you read my mind?!"

"No. You said that last part aloud Araragi-san."

Oh? I did?

"Yes, you did."

"I definitely didn't say that last part aloud!"

"I made a conjecture to guess what you would think of next and succeeded."

To be able to predict my thoughts, as expected of Hanekawa. I'm getting sidetracked though.

"Hey, Hanekawa. You said before that you only know Uzumaki-san mostly through rumors, right? From what you do know of the person herself, how true are those rumors?"

"I can't really say... I've met her once, in the passing, and she caught my eyes. With only that as evidence, I can't make an accurate judgement but those rumors might have more than a small grain off truth."

Again, Hanekawa gives an uncertain answer to my question. I hear a hint of skepticism in her voice and put it off as her worrying about her reputation as "all knowing" with me. Don't worry, Hanekawa. Even if you were to tell me that I can access a treasure chest by jumping off the cliff of death at the mountain of doom, I would still jump no matter what!

"All tall tales have some truth to it... probably. Even monsters are real, after all, there's no certainty that such a cliche character wouldn't show up."

"That's true... Araragi-san, how far are you on your homework."

Out of nowhere, Hanekawa lightly pooch upon a rather forbidden topic. My eyes dart towards my book bag, the one sitting so innocently at my desk, and I lick my lips, preparing my repertoire of lies and half-truths that I prepared for these kind of moments.

Why would I need it, one would ask? It's obviously because I didn't touch it so much as I touched a certain game controller waiting for a player downstairs.

"My... dog ate it."

* * *

-Flashback Scene: Transition to Naoetsu Private High School-

Following up on the strange story of the rooftop flowers that Senjougahara's told me about, I find myself climbing the side of the school building to get to the top. Logically speaking, an action like this is going overboard. Since my curiosity is getting the best of me however, I'm willing to be a bit illogical about my actions.

"Senpai, that's super dangerous, you know."

A random blonde girl with twin tails make a sudden appearance to talk to me. She is, of course, doing this logically and is merely sticking her head out the window above the one I'm climbing on.

"I think so too but in order to lessen the burden of a certain girl I've aided in the past, I'm willing to risk my safety to make it to the top of this school's rooftop. My soul as a man demands that I take the swiftest course of action!"

I tell her my truthful reason... Well, not really. It does sound better than saying that I'm curious about what's up on the rooftop though.

"You certainly make it sound heroic."

"I know."

She completely bought into my truthful reason without any questions and wave at me as I climb pass her.

"Well, best of lucks then, Senpai."

Saying this, she pulls her head back into the school and close the window. I muse at the strangeness of that action. As far as I know, no windows in this school is openable.

"Still, to leave me hanging without even a word of discouragement..."

I sigh between grunts as I push myself up another level. This school, how many floors does it have?!

"You're wrong. As your junior, it's my responsibilities to help my Senpai to the best of my ability. If you feel that my encouragement is inadequate, then I will help you more actively."

Once again, the blonde girl who calls herself my junior sticks her head back out of a window above me. This time however, she does more and actively stretches out the window to grasp my my right hand, the one that's closest to her reach.

"Eh?!"

Then, in a feat that completely defies logic, she pulls me upwards into the window with her. Not in the typical hefting me up manner either but in the manner of literally swinging me out from the wall and then pulling me in when my body's reached her eye level.

"Come on, Senpai. I got the keys to the rooftop from the teacher. We can go up there now."

Setting me down with her one arm hold, she flashily pulls out a ring of keys from her pockets with her other hand.

Eh? When did you get that? Did you have them since the beginning? Ah, you're walking away. Wait up~! I have too many retorts coming to my mind right now, let's just follow her for the time being.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Araragi's Room-

"I remember now, I did meet her before? Huh, did I? I could've sworn I've only meet her just yesterday... did I forget? Could that just have been my overactive imagination?"

Opening my eyes from the dream, I recall the memory of a few weeks past. Though I had said to Hanekawa last night that Uzumaki Naruko's someone who I wouldn't forget after meeting, I ended up forgetting her. What a failure...

"Ah, Nii-chan's awake already? Good! Get down for breakfast then, I don't want to wait like usual!"

In the middle of my self-evaluation session (completed with me taking a "The Thinker" pose), my littler sisters kick in my bedroom door. Karen stays at the edge of the smoking door frame with her leg extended outward while Tsukihi peeks out from behind her big sister with what looks suspiciously like a nailed baseball bat.

"I'll be downstairs in a moment after I change."

To the sudden and not very subtle threat of violence, I give the obvious and only answer available. Karen lowers her leg while Tsukihi hides the nailed baseball bat behind her back. The two stare at me for a moment, as if not understanding my answer, before smiling brightly.

""Hurry up, Nii-chan!""

They say this together in an eerie synchronization and run down the hallway to the stairs quickly afterwards. I look at my bedroom door, one that's slowly falling off from it's hinges, and sigh lowly. Well, time to get ready for school.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Street Going to School-

"So you have met this Uzumaki Naruko before but you didn't remember the meeting until today? Perhaps you taking a beating from Kanbaru dropped your brain's low IQ even more. That's a shame, I've wasted so much time tutoring you too."

I happened to have caught Senjougahara on the way to school and the both of us decided to walk together for the rest of the way. Since we weren't talking about anything much, I start on a conversation the first topic that came to my mind; Uzumaki Naruko.

Of course, talking about another girl to your girlfriend is a big no no. I was rewarded with a venomous answer that pierced my heart. Thanks to the remnants of my vamperic healing, I managed to recover quickly and walk straight again.

"Is something wrong?"

I take a look at the girl walking with me after recovering to see that she's contemplating. She flicks her gaze towards my direction and tells me

"Not anything your decrepit brain can understand."

Like that, my heart shatters again. Oi, shouldn't I get a heart that's stronger every time it's put back together? how come it's so fragile!

"The person named Uzumaki Naruko, how would you describe her appearance?"

Ooh~! As expected of the cliche manga character; to catch my girlfriend's interest without even a first meeting. It's too bad that you're both girls... no, I should be thankful that you're both girls. I don't need any competition in this one man contest for Senjougahara's heart. If anyone shows up, I might just lose. Rather, I will probably lose.

"What she looks like? Well, blonde haired, twin tailed, lightly tanned, blue eyes and wearing our school's uniform. Oh, she also has an orange bike. Why do you ask?"

I list out the traits that I remember from Uzumaki Naruko to Senjougahara and she nods in agreement to something while looking straight ahead. At my question, she suddenly take three steps forward to get in front of me and turns to face me. Her left hand rises up as she points at something behind me.

"I asked that because we've just crossed a light pole being climbed by a blonde haired, twin tailed, lightly tanned girl wearing our school's uniform."

I blink blankly, taking a moment to absorb the meaning of the words spoken before twisting my body dangerously fast so that I can fully scan the road I've passed by. Surely enough, the figure of one blonde haired, twin tailed, lightly tanned girl focuses into my vision.

She is, in a feat that seems to defy gravity, hanging off a light pole at a perpendicular angle using the main body of the pole and her feet; one foot is pushing towards the pole while the other is hooking around and pulling forward from behind the pole. With her body straight and arms extended upwards, she calmly unwraps a balloon that got stuck near the bulb.

"It'll be faster if you twist the end first and then push it out rather than pulling on it like that."

I merely stare at the scene for a while as the blonde girl continues to undo the complex knot that the balloon's tied itself into. Senjougahara thought differently though and calls out to give the girl unknotting advice.

"Like this?"

"No, twist it the other way."

"Hmmm, like this?"

"Yes, until it starts to bunch up. Push it out now."

"Oh, this works pretty well."

"Of course, now for the next knot, you should-"

Just like that, time passes by where Uzumaki Naruko unties a balloon at bizarre height, Senjougahara advises and I stare back and forth at the aforementioned girls. The two seems to settle themselves into a comfortable relationship of manager and worker quickly enough and the knot is unties in rapid succession few minutes after.

"There we go!"

Untying the last of the knots that challenged her, Uzumaki Naruko holds up the balloon in a victorious manner before sliding down the pole. Once she's a meter or so off the ground, she loosens her leg from the pole and bounce to the ground. With another bounce, she turns to my direction and rush towards the person standing next to me.

"Thanks, Senpai's girlfriend, Senjougahara-san. I owe you one."

Braking a feet away from Senjougahara, Uzumaki Naruko grabs my girlfriend's hand with the hand not holding the balloon and shakes it vigorously. After four lively shakes, the blonde lets go and races off in the direction Senjougahara and I came from, balloon billowing behind her in a cape like fashion.

I watch her dissappear by running off to the morning sun for a few seconds before turning back to the girl next to me. Senjougahara's uncharacteristically being silent and is focusing on the hand that was shook by Uzumaki Naruko. Oi, could this be? Is Senjougahara unlocked as a route for Uzumaki Naruko?!

"...Her hands is incredibly smooth."

Safe! Phew, for a moment, I thought Senjougahara's fallen into a path of no return.

"Moving on, Araragi-kun, why did she specifically point you out as her senpai?"

Arg, friendly fire! Don't turn those accusing eyes at me, Senjougahara! We've only been going out for two weeks, there's no way I'll have enough courage to cheat on you already! No, rather, I don't have enough charm points invested in my stats to cheat on you anyways!

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Naoetsu Private High School-

"Ah, hello there Araragi-senpai! It is I, your most beloved underclassmen, Kanbaru Suruga! ...Eh? What's with that pose? Did I surprise you that much?"

Fractionally lowering my arms which I've raised from the moment I heard the word "senpai", I see the face of a mildly bewildered Kanbaru. She blinks at me and wave a hand in an, "I come in peace" gesture. I blink at the action and fully lower my guarding arms. Good, it isn't Uzumaki Naruko, coming to finish the job that she sent Senjougahara to start this morning. No, unless...

"Hey, Kanbaru, did Uzumaki Naruko ever triggered any flags with you?"

Once again, Kanbaru blinks.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Time Skip/Exposition-

"I see, hum, hum, so that's what happened."

Nodding her head to my story, Kanbaru leaps up from her seat beside me to takes three steps to stand in front of me. With her left hand pointing at herself and her right patting me on my shoulder, she proudly declares-

"Don't worry, Araragi-senpai, even to an otherworldly beauty like Uzumaki-san, Senjougahara-senpai, and by extention, I, will never betray you!"

What you just said, that doesn't make me few even a slight bit better. Don't admit that Uzumaki Naruko is an otherworldly beauty, you're making me lose even more self-confidence in my chances! And don't refer to yourself as an add-on gift either; it sounds like you're ready to betray me at any time now!

"I won't you know~"

"Mind reading?! No, wait, I spoke aloud again, didn't I?"

"Yup!"

Giving my shoulder one last reassuring pat, Kanbaru takes a seat next to me again. She pulls out a carton of milk and a bagged sandwich from her skirt pockets before eating it. I follow her example and pull out the food I bought from the cafeteria as well.

"So anyways, why are you interested in Uzumaki-san?"

"Interested?"

After a few moments of silence and eating, Kanbaru brings up a point that I too have wondered about for a bit. Turning to my underclassmen, I open my mouth and honestly speak my mind.

"I don't know."

Whether it was because of her rumored eccentricity, the memory I have of her helping me, or the short moment we've had in the passing the day before, I don't know why I'm fixated on the blonde haired, twintailed, lightly tanned girl.

"Hmm, you give the same answer as her classmates too."

"Her classmates?"

My ears perk a bit. Did Kanbaru asks about how Uzumaki Naruko is thought of with her classmates?

"Yeah, for someone who's come to school a number of times that can be counted in one hand, she's pretty popular."

The confirms the rumors of her being a delinquent, in the school skipping sense.

"You speak like you haven't met her yourself."

"I personally have never met Uzumaki-san before, that's true."

Kanbaru easily admits that the girl she complimented as an"otherworldly beauty" is someone she's never been acquainted with before. Please, don't be so non-nonchalant with my self confidence. Now I'm worried again! What if Uzumaki Naruko really is like a "collect all harem members" cliche character? Then what?!

"But now I'm curious. What is Uzumaki-san like, if she's caught your attention."

Kanbaru chomps down the last remnants of her lunch and tosses to the trashcan it in a basketball player like way. I finish mine at the same time as well and chucks it underhandedly to the same trash can. Above us, the bell system blares, telling the students that lunchtime is about to end.

"Well, I'll be going now, Araragi-senpai. Have a nice day!"

"Yeah. See you around, Kanbaru."

Nodding with a resolute "Un," Kanbaru races off to the stairway that leads to her floor and class. I pick myself up and slowly make my way to class as well. As I walk, Kanbaru's question of why I'm interested in Uzumaki Naruko echoes through my mind.

Really, why am I so interested in Uzimaki Naruko?

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Eikou Cram School-

"When you can't talk to the person and only think of them from afar, when you can't get them out of your mind, when you are speechless with they're presence nearby, Araragi-kun, isn't that called love? Did something good happen? Are you finally regaining your intensity as a human?"

Standing in one of Eikou Cram School's abandoned rooms, I face Oshino with the hopes that he might know something. Even if it isn't supernatural in nature, he's shown himself to be an incredibly deductive person. I now glare at him with my best impression of a mad Senjougahara.

"I know I told you to collect stories for me but a love story is no good, you know. I'm more into the horror and mystery genre."

"Oi, Oshino."

Hearing my irritated voice, Oshino gives me a ruggedly cheeky grin. Waving his hand into the air in the universal sign of "I surrender", he shifts on his seat of desks and begin speaking.

"The thing you're talking about, it sounds like Charisma."

"Charisma? Rather than a cliche manga character, you mean Uzumaki Naruko is a cliche video game character instead?"

"Well, to an extent, yes. The one off ability of Charm to attract and hold another's attention, to command them to willingly do any tasks within their ability, to obtain their obedience and various things like that."

Putting up three fingers and then giving up and waving his hand in the air, Oshino makes an attempt to list off the ability that ties in with Uzumaki Naruko. I process the sentence and blanch at the mention of Charm; the vamperic skill of making living dolls out of self aware humans.

"Isn't that a dangerous thing then?"

"No, not really. In the end, it's called a one off ability because it doesn't make anyone do what they don't want to do. It's only a strong suggestion; a voice that must be heard."

I sigh in relieve to his reply. It made sense if I think about it so I should have known it was something along that line.

"Assuming that's her ability, do you think she's involved with an aberration?"

"I've never met the girl so I can't say neither yes or no for certainty. The ability itself is something that any living creature can imitate with enough natural talent, hence, the name that comes with it."

Oshino shrugs indifferently and smile his casually usual smile.

"Knowing you though, it might just be making four for four."

"Hmmm, thanks. I'm just going to leave this here."

I give him a flat look and dig into my book bag to pull out a paper bag that I toss in his direction. Shinobu, who's been sitting mutely in the corner the whole time, snaps her neck in attention to the newly introduced bag.

I turn my back as the blonde, immortal(?), pseudo vampire pounces Oshino for the treat inside the little paper bag with the printed logo of Mister Donuts. Oshino's cries and pleas for help went to deaf ears, much to my enjoyment.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Random Store-

"Oh? We meet again, Senpai. This is a pleasant surprise." With nearly no inflection to her voice, Uzumaki Naruko greets me before I knew she was anywhere near me. I stiffly straighten my back at the sound of her voice and rigidly turn around to see her lightly tanned face.

"Yo, Uzumaki-san-" She perks her head fractionally when I said her name. "-it's a rare coincident to meet you twice in one day. This is a surprise for me too."

She gives me an unnerving stare that lasted for what felt like a minute before shifting her gaze towards my shopping basket and the chips, pudding cups, ice creams, a Jump Magazine and a large bottle of soft drink within it. It's a bit of a splurge but I am planning on gifting these items to my sisters to appease them from when I used their snacks to bait Hachikuji into my house; Hachikuji didn't fall for it.

"Is it really?"

Uzumaki Naruko tilts her head to the side and cusp her chin with her hand; a pose that all thinkers would take upon contemplatively contemplating something worthy of being contemplated upon.

"I suppose that's true. I rarely go to school so the chances of meeting me decrease as a result."

She nods lightly, which sways her twintails noticeably. Her hair's almost as long as Tsukihi's. It actually reaches her lower thighs; that must cost a fortune to shampoo. I look over at her basket while my eyes were already wondering down.

...Whoa, I didn't know this store sold so many instant ramen brands. There's like, twenty different types in there. I look up at the girl again and she captures my gaze with her azure blue eyes.

"Are you hoarding up snacks for to last the year or something?"

She gives me a look of slight confusion. I questionably return her look of questioning with my own questioning look. After a while, she pulls the basket to chest level and cradles it in her arms; similar to how a mother would to her bundled up baby.

"This is my dinner for tonight."

Did I say mother to a baby? I must've been hanging out with Hachikuji too much and stuttered. I meant to say, "like how a freaking bear would to a fish it caught from a river."

"Isn't that a little too unhealthy?"

And way too much.

"I've been living like on ramen for a year now and I'm as fit as can be. In fact, I consider myself to be a lot healthier than any of my classmates and the average teens my age."

A flag has arisen! Shocking discovery found by teenage girl of age seventeen! Living on a ramen only diet is healthy?! Uzumaki Naruko-san, what planet to you live in? Are you an extraterrestrial who can survive off of junk food? Are you a super vampire who can live for eternity fasting on only Mister Donuts?

"I don't really like Mister Donuts. As you can see, I'm more of a ramen person."

"Mind reading?!"

"Ah, I said that aloud, didn't I? Don't mind me, Senpai."

She is somehow stealing my routine for this arc and corrupting it to follow her flow. I am feeling very depreciated. Is she stealing my status as a character? No way! Stop, stop!

"Don't worry, I'd never steal anything from Senpai."

Stop reading my mind as well! I'm definitely sure I'm not saying anything so why are you responding so evenhandedly? It's getting creepy! Only my beloved, living encyclopedia known as Hanekawa should be able to do that as a gag.

"Even if you think that ramen is fine, you should still have a better menu. Eating that much salt is not good for your body, no matter what you think otherwise."

"Of course, Senpai. I usually make homemade ramen and use ingredients that balances both taste and nutrition. I'm only stocking on these instant ones for today since I'm lacking in funds."

She is now cradling the basket of ramen. The basket FILLED with ramen. Oi, are you implying that you eat that much everyday? How's that any good for your body?

"Well, it's getting late so I'll leave first. Good night, Senpai."

Uzumaki Naruko bows her head slightly to me and goes to the cashier to check out her basket. After paying and getting her bag, she walks to the door to leave. As the automatic door opens, she pauses mid-step and turns back to me.

"Senpai, if you're looking to make up to your sister, I remember Karen saying how she'd like some plain vanilla ice cream after her daily training today. That one's also just not very good either."

Saying what she wanted to say to me, she leaves into the night. Within moments, she blends into the dark streets and disappears from my sight. How she did that with her bright yellow hair, I have no idea.

I turn back to the freezer section of the store to switch out the "Strawberry Pineapple Chocolate Supreme Super Surprise" ice cream I was preparing to buy for the more sensible plain vanilla. It's not even bothering me that Uzumaki Naruko might know my sister. One of the rumors about her is that she is a martial artist looking for a disciple, after all. I just hope that Karen will have a good life with Uzumaki Naruko. I'll go burn some incense later to wish for their happiness.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Araragi House-

"You met Naruko-san on the way? No wonder. An insensitive brother like you could never have correctly guessed what flavor I'd want."

"Ah, Karen-chan, forgive me~ I'll never use your snacks to bait little kids again~"

"Fanatical fanatic fanatically fascinates fascinatingly... I'm scared to let you out to society again after you said that."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Absolutely nothing, I just felt like saying that."

Sitting on top of my sprawled body, Karen happily eats the vanilla ice cream that I've presented to her and Tsukihi. Speaking of Tsukihi, she left a moment ago with the bag of snack I brought home. Right now, she's probably debating over which one to eat first. Karen shifts on my back and puts a spoonful of ice cream up to my mouth.

"Want some?"

"Ahhhhhnnn."

I helpfully open my mouth in a wide manner for her to drop the scoop of ice cream into. It tasted delicious.

"Tsukihi! Are you done yet? I'm starting the game!"

"Play ahead without me! I'm having trouble deciding which one to get!"

"Remember to close the fridge when you're done then!"

"'Kay!"

Getting off of my prone body, Karen puts her ice cream on the table sitting beside me and goes up to the game station to turn it on. She grabs two controller and walks back to hand one to me.

"Want to play, Nii-chan?"

"Sure."

I get up from the floor that Karen's thrown me on and sit on one of the numerous chairs in the room. Karen takes a seat next to me after I settle down. She maneuvers the game screen and deftly open up the game she wanted to play for the night; a strange beat them up romance dating sim they've picked up from somewhere.

"...So, how'd you get to know Uzumaki Naruko?"

"I saw her in the park attempting to help a purse snatcher from the local police officer after subduing him. She ended up subduing the police officer too. It was a small fiasco that ended without the purse snatcher getting arrested after he apologized to the woman he wronged. I think his reason was for a sick relative. Apparently, Naruko-san took care of that too and made it on the headline of newspaper two weeks ago; the one about a woman's miraculous recovery from fatal conditions."

That's a pretty big reveal to say nonchalantly. It sounds exactly like something a manga character like Uzumaki Naruko would do for a filler chapter though.

"That still doesn't answer how you got to know Uzumaki Naruko."

"I helped explain to the police officer that Naruko-san didn't mean any harm when she stopped him; he was preparing to arrest her instead of the purse snatcher."

And the police officer accepted it? Japan's police department sure is loose on their regulations in when facing their sense of moral value huh? Nah, probably not. It's just because Uzumaki Naruko is a manga character. No manga character goes to jail unless its part of the punchline or is pivotal to the plot.

"Sounds like you had a fun time."

"Kinda, yeah. Naruto-san would make the strangest sounding argument to back up my support. My favorite is "the reason she got stolen from is because she keeps the mission objective inside such a obvious location. If she had hidden it properly, nothing would've had happened, therefore, it is not my fault or mister thief's fault but the woman's fault." The cop's face was priceless."

Karen is pretty talkative about Uzumaki Naruko, do I sense a crush? Time to cross examine.

"She said she met you during your daily training today..."

"Yeah, I was doing some after school running and met her on the way back home. She was riding her bike pretty slowly at the time so I managed to keep pace while talking a bit with her. We split up halfway when she said she wanted to stop by the convenience store to get dinner."

The story matches, I'll need to talk with Uzumaki Naruto about her future with my sister then. Damn, I'll also have to dig out Karen's diary and see when she's planning on confessing her undying love to Uzumaki Naruko. I should-

"You're getting distracted, Nii-chan!"

"What kind of move is that?!"

Seeing me planning for her future and capitalizing on the fact that I've got my mind on something else, Karen pulls off her character's hidden thirteen button smash combo to utterly destroy me.

"Onii-chan lost already? My turn next then!"

As the animation for my character's dying love shows on screen, Tsukihi walks into the room with a small bowl filled with the "Strawberry Pineapple Chocolate Supreme Super Surprise" ice cream that I ended up buying for fun.

I sadly hand her the controller and the two start having a match which would have made professional players feel ashamed for thinking they were any good. I watch my sisters as they get pump up while challenging each other in virtual mortal combat. I look at Tsukihi's bowl and steal a scoop of the "Strawberry Pineapple Chocolate Supreme Super Surprise".

I should have listened to Uzumaki Naruko's advice.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Random Road-

After regaining possession of my soulmated bike, I took it out for a spin to see if there's still anything left of the injury that it's incurred itself in its uncalled for challenge against a certain light pole. In the few moments that I've been riding my soulmate, I've started to rethink the act of walking altogether. Even if there's a time and place for everything, walking on our own two feet is just too inconvenient, bikes are the new evolution of mankind.

"""HAH!"""

I swerve for a moment at the physically powerful yell of many people. There was an honest shock wave coming from the impact of their voices. As if to argue against my earlier thoughts, the sound shakes my soul and sends shiver down my spine. Forget bikes being the evolution of mankind, we should stay as is if this is what it truly means to be human.

I punt my left feet down into the ground to regain my balance and stop moving forward a second later. Looking around while expecting to see an army of warriors clad in olden day armors, I instead catch an eyeful of delinquents practicing synchronize punches at the empty air in front of them.

"""HAH!"""

Standing next to the riverbed, dozens of fists fly forth followed by the sound of spirited, concurrent battle cries. The air shudder and for a moment, I saw a large, golden ashura statue appear behind the delinquents to give them a thumbs up.

"""HAH!""" """HAH!""" """HAH!"""

Continuously, the delinquents punch the air with absolute fury. Continuously, the air shakes and quiver at the power held in the delinquents' action. I stand at the upper edge of the riverbank's slope and watch with mesmerized eyes as the delinquents continue to train themselves.

I watch on for a few minutes before my tired leg pulls me out of my daze. The golden ashura statue disappears from my sight and the chill in my spine dissipates. I get off my bike and lean it against a nearby light pole before looking on again at the delinquents.

They're still going "HAH! HAH! HAH!" while punching the air. Their spirited cry lull towards me again but I knew better. I keep my wits to myself and refused to let my mind get pulled in by this coalescent of manliness. I turn my eyes away from the reappearing statue of ashura to look at anything else around the delinquents.

My eyes latch on to the next most noticable thing sitting at the riverbank; a golden, twin tailed head obscured by an oversized bowl. Already falling back on my increasing encounter rate with the golden twin tailed head, I wasn't surprise when it was Uzumaki Naruko who sticks her head out of the bowl. The sudden miniature earthquake caused by her dropping the bowl and the almighty burp that rang through the riverbank did, however, surprise me.

As if her burp was a signal, the delinquents who were practicing their punches all increase their fighting spirit up to eleven and screams together in one glorious, unified "HAH!" before giving the world their final, thunderous, earth rending punch.

"One thousand. Good job guys, take a break."

Uzumaki Naruko's voice ring clearly through the riverbank area. Her soothingly calm voice seems to have relaxed everyone immediately since the delinquents all drop their stance and fall to the ground like stringless puppets. As if they've just returned from a long and harsh training session, some wipe off the sweat on their body while others just lay sprawled out on the grass in utter exhaustion.

Uzumaki Naruko goes around these tired delinquents and pass out soft, fluffy towels and bottles of refreshingly cool looking water. The delinquents gratefully accept her gifts with heartfelt thanks whenever she passes by. Not one of them, despise being delinquents, did not show their gratitude to the blonde twin tailed girl.

After distributing all the towels and water to the delinquents, Uzumaki Naruko takes a seat again next to the large bowl that she's left on the grass. She begins pointing at each delinquent and impart to them words I cannot hear. It probably is something wise and amazing though, since the group of delinquents were all faithfully taking note of her every word; more literally in some of the cases who pulled out a notebook to write in.

At this point, I'm obligated to cross out another line from the rumor list that Hanekawa gave me of Uzumaki Naruko. If I remember the words of the all knowing Hanekawa correctly, the only thing left unchecked from the list of rumors is her being a super genius.

"Uzumaki-san, what's eighty seven to the third power?"

"It's six hundred fifty eight thousand five hundred and three, Senpai."

"...I foolishly asked a hard question when I didn't know the answer to it."

"Don't worry, Senpai. It's definitely correct. I typed it on the calculator to get the answer."

Somehow finding myself close enough to talk to her with my indoor voice, Uzumaki Naruko pulls a handheld calculator out from nowhere and show the screen to me. It indeed says the number she told me just now. Just in case, I borrow the calculator and type in the number sentence again. The same answer shows up again when I hit the equal button. Well, that makes this completely meaningless. How else can I go about to see if she's a genius.

"I'm not a genius, Senpai. At most, I'd say I'm very average."

"That's exactly what a genius would say."

"No. A genius would just say that they're normal to save their breath. I'm not a genius because I'm only at most, average."

"To know how geniuses thinks and circumventing their outlying normality, wouldn't that make you some sort of super genius then?!"

Pulling back in mock shock, I get to see the sight of a confused Uzumaki Naruko. I say confuse but it's just her furrowing her eyebrows a little though. It still counts as a win for me when she's usually so expressionless! After a moment, she slowly nods her head in an understanding manner. My turn to be confuse comes since I'm not sure what she's understanding. Nothing I've said so far made sense.

She stands up from her sitting position and pulls the giant bowl to her sides while getting up. Turning towards the group of delinquents, she holds up the bowl and raps its edge. The bowl makes a deep gonging sound in response and all the delinquents gathers up to formation for Uzumaki Naruko.

"We'll be ending training early today since some of you were lacking in enthusiasm-"

There was a clamor of protests from the delinquents; some apologizing and begging the girl to not end training early while others look down at their feet in shame. I, standing behind her, look quizzically at her blonde head. Lacking in enthusiasm? These delinquents looked like they were preparing for war!

"-I know that some of you are under the weather, that is perfectly understandable. Go take a few days off. We will meet again next week, on regular schedule, for the next training session. Until then, take care."

Cutting them off like a slice of their protest is made out of butter, Uzumaki Naruko talks over them with a clear voice. Because she didn't raise her voice or change her infliction, I find myself surprise that any of the loud delinquents could've heard her. They all settle down as she finishes and gongs her bowl a second time. As one, they all bow their heads at a respectful forty five degree angle.

"""THANK YOU FOR YOUR TEACHINGS, UZUMAKI-SENSEI!"""

"Be good and stay healthy."

"""YES MA'AM!"""

Seeing that the delinquents have all said their farewells to her, Uzumaki Naruko turns her back to them and walks off, dragging me along with one hand. I follow the girl up the slope of the riverbank. It was only until I got to the top that I see the delinquents raise their heads from their stiff, uniformal bows.

"Come Senpai, we need to hurry before the store closes down!"

"Uh, sure. Lead the way, I guess."

Hopping on to my parked bike and pulling me to sit on the bike rack, Uzumaki Naruko nonchalantly beckons me to hold on to her waist. Complying to the forceful invitation, I wrap my arms around the girl and is immediately pushed away. This action was not done by her though, it was done by the rush of wind she's built from peddling my soulmate.

I grasp her waist harder in an attempt to hold on and the girl takes it as an invitation to go faster. Pulling her body forward into a leaning position, she accelerates her peddling speed. The wind howls against her. The air flows against her. The very friction of the bike goes against her. Yet she still push on, one strong pedal at a time. All the while, I give her my very manly shrieks of (dis)encouragement.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Random Ramen Shop-

"Ah, Uzumaki, you're back to take on my quiz? Did you prepare your wallet this time for your inevitable defeat? I won't allow for another free trial."

"I'm confident that I'll pass this time."

Entering a mundane looking ramen shop, Uzumaki Naruko goes up to the only worker around and slaps a ten thousand yen note on the table he's wiping. I watch as they banter for a moment before the worker takes up the monetary bill and goes to the back of the store counter.

Uzumaki Naruko follows to take a seat on a stool on the opposite side of the counter. The worker pulls out a piece of paper and hands it to the blonde. As she is signing it, I lean over her shoulders to take a curious look at the content.

_'I _ do hereby vouch to empty my pockets to the great Momofuku Ando, may his blessed soul grace this land for an eternity more, should the event of me losing to him happens. To this, I solemnly swear.'_

It was a freaking contract! A shady contract too! A shady contract that Uzumaki Naruko signed without even a thought!

The man takes up the signed contract and nods appreciatively at the neat handwriting that belongs to the perfect manga protagonist, Uzumaki Naruko. He then raises his right hand into the air and speaks to her.

"I, Momofuku Ando, do affirm to this contract to do my part in giving one Uzumaki Naruko a fair trial. Should she pass my test with a score of high majority, in this case, two thirds, she will be acclaimed her prize to eat at my shop for free for the coming year. To this, I solemnly vow."

Though he says some serious sounding words, I can see that the man is not really believing any of it. The guy has on a conniving smile that just shows how assured he is of his victory.

Uzumaki Naruko seems undaunted by this and continues to seriously glare at the man. She is so concentrated that I am starting to see a battle aura around her. How incredible.

The man stands against Uzumaki Naruko's fighting spirit without budging an inch. Slowly, he narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to give her the first quiz question.

"First question, what is eighty six to the third power!"

Mind reading?! No, wait, the question is off by a digit.

"It's six hundred fifty eight thousand five hundred and three."

"...Che, learned from last time and brought a calculator with you, huh?"

Following the click of the shop worker's tongue, Uzumaki Naruko brings out a calculator with the answer on the screen. He clicks his tongue again and moves on to the second question. I, on the other hand, notice a small bit of misinformation that the two apparently missed.

Uzumaki Naruko, you typed in eighty seven to the third power again, not eighty six! I would know since I asked for that earlier! Ramen shop worker, you didn't know the answer either and you're trying to act cool!? Was I the only one who spotted that?

"Fine, second question! I am something nobody wants. I am something everyone have. I am made of wood. Dead bodies lay where I should. What am I?"

"I remember this from the last time you asked this question. The answer is a coffin!"

"Wrong, the answer is incense money."

"Wha-!"

Uzumaki Naruko puts on a completely shocked face while the worker has on a look complete triumph. I stare at the blonde girl in awe, and not the good way. That kind of question has too many open ended answers! If you were to give him one he'd just chose another from the list of a dozen that he's got! The only way to top this kind of question is to throw out all the possible answers; something that I doubt anyone but the great Encyclokawa can do.

"Now, the last question, what is the capital of Nauru?"

"...Where?"

"Wrong. Kukuku, once again, you've lost, Uzumaki!"

"Guh, not yet! I won't give up until the very end!"

No, no. You've definitely lost already. There's only three questions and you already missed two. There's no way you can make a comeback now, the game's over, you know.

"I like your guts, very well! Fourth question-!"

Oh, so you're still going at it anyways? I'll just take a seat on this stool next to Uzumaki Naruko then. Don't mind me while I pour myself a cup of water from this nearby pitcher and watch the two of you have this farce of a challenge. Nope, don't bother with me then. Oh? Is this untouched bowl of ramen for me? Well, I don't want to bother you... but okay, I'll eat it, only because you've insisted, though.

Fourth question soon becomes fifth question and fifth becomes sixth and so on and so forth. As the two of them continue on, I continue to build on the amount of things I consume. Somehow or another, Uzumaki Naruko and I always find a bowl of steaming ramen in front of us to eat.

By the time the two of them were done with there little game of questions and riddles, I find myself with a debt of three large bowls of ramen. I touch my pocket and notice too late that my wallet is not there. I suddenly recall at this moment that I left it at home; having thought that I wouldn't need it on a short ride around with my beloved bike.

"Well, I'm full. How about you, Senpai?"

"I'm done too."

"In that case, we should get going. I'll see you later, Ando-san."

"Come back anytime, Uzumaki."

Uzumaki, pulling out an even more impressive feat then my eating of three large bowls of ramen, walks out of the shop, while dragging me along, with a debt of nine large bowls to her name.

She didn't pay the shopkeeper anything and the man bids us off with a happy grin. Needless to say, I also didn't have a chance to talk to the man about the money payment for the food. To walk out of the store after devouring twelve bowls of ramen between us without paying, this confuses me as I walk to the bike rack with Uzumaki Naruko.

"Of course we paid, Senpai. Why did you think I gave him a ten thousand yen note when we first walked in?"

Settling on to my bike and staying still so that I can get on too, Uzumaki Naruko answers the question in my head.

"Eh? Wasn't that the test fee or something?"

"Of course not, why would anyone pay ten thousand yen to take that lousy quiz. It's common sense to not fall for such a farce, Senpai."

I am left speechless.

* * *

-Colored Scene: Transition to Araragi House-

"I'll see you later, Senpai. Have a nice rest of the day."

Bowing her head in the tiniest bit of an angle, Uzumaki Naruko bobs her blonde twin tails and bids her farewell greeting. For a person who has such foreign features, Uzumaki Naruko does not look out of place doing so.

I wave my hand to her as she raises her head. She nods and silently walks off. Like every one of our other meetings, I lose track of the girl after a while. Even when it is midday, even when there's no crowd, it's as if she disappears in plain sight.

I look at the direction she went and then down at my bike and the bag of to go ramen she's left with me. The bag of ramen is a mystery. Where she got the ramen, I have no clue; it just appeared somewhere along the way while she was biking me home. I do know one thing about the ramen, however. I don't want to eat it.

After consuming an abnormal amount of ramen with Uzumaki Naruko earlier, the idea that I'll have to finish this too causes me to become queasy. As I gingerly pick up the bag and look at it, there's an unsettling amount of convulsions happening in my stomach. These convulsions are telling me to not eat anymore of the salty (but admittedly delicious) food.

Split between saving it for later or tossing it now, I bring it into the house. I hear the television blasting off some reality talk show in the living room as I take off my shoes. An amazing idea hits my mind as I listen to the ambient noise. I can pawn this off to Karen or Tsukihi and earn myself some big brother points!

Sneakily, I step through the halls towards the living room and peek my head inside. There, I see my target, lying on her stomach with her back exposed. She is looking at the television, watching it very fixedly. This allows me even more advantage for what I'm planning on doing.

I close in on her on sneakily cover her eyes with quick, soundless movements. She starts, pulling her head up a bit. I followed the motion with my hands as well. I lean in nearer to her ears before she could think of turning around and whispers into it.

"Tsukihi-chan~ Guess who~."

She tilts her head to the side, away from me when I whisper this and take a cautious sniff of the air. After two testing sniff, she sighs disappointingly and responds to me.

"Onii-chan, you're not very good at this. If you wanted to make it harder, at least disguise your voice."

My voice? How'd you figure out that it was my voice from smelling the air? What kind of absurd superpower is that?

"I wanted to smell if the scent of perfume was coming from you."

Mind reading?! No... this skit is overdone. Yeah, I said it aloud, I know.

"Perfume?"

I pull one of my shirt's sleeve up to my nose to take a sniff of it. I smell nothing but ramen. I look down at the still blinded Tsukihi with questioning eyes. She doesn't take any action to push my hands away when I return it to its duty of covering her eyes.

"Yeah, a mix of the kitchen scent and wildflower. It's strange that someone would combine those two but I approve. Your girlfriend's got good taste, Onii-chan."

Wait wha- girlfriend? Who, Senjougahara? How'd you find out about her identity already? I've been keeping that one a secret. No, wait. If we're talking about context, isn't she talking about Uzumaki Naruko?

"She's not my girlfriend, we just hanged out and ate some ramen."

"Oh, so that explains that smell of ramen. Did you bring back some for me?"

"An extra large portion."

Upon hearing that I have something for her, Tsukihi rolls over and turns her gaze to me. Well, her gaze was on me for only a second. She locks on to the take out bag a moment later when she sensed her true objective. She sits up and gives me a big hug while stretching out to grab hold of the bag in the same action. With a jovial "Thanks, Onii-chan~", she takes off to the kitchen to get the food ready for eating.

I stay on the couch and watch her run off until she's out of sight. Pulling up my other sleeve, I take a small sniff to smell more ramen. Rather than the smell of kitchen and wildflower, didn't you only smell ramen, Tsukihi?

* * *

Challenges to put in the story!

*Find a logical aberration for Naruto.

*Make this Naruto the same Uzumaki Naruto that everyone's familiar with, the one from the Naruto universe. Whether he was displaced, slipped, reborn or just plainly cloned, this Uzumaki Naruto should know everything about his life as the one in the Elemental Nations.

*Have fun writing the story~!


	8. Mushoku Tensei: Extra Person

#8) Random Mushoku Tensei plot bunny attack~!

Rudeus knew somewhere in his heart, even if everything was calculated out to fit in perfectly, that he would fail. The time hopping spell he's made from the Dragon God's notes is not fool's proof and he's built up enough bad karma to easily throw himself to the end of time before making it to where he should go.

Still, within this forsaken life that he lives in, he wants to put his hope into something. This time leap spell was that something. Of course, should this spell fail him, something he's assured of will be happening, and kill him along the way, he has his own consistency plan.

The first and his most hopeful one, his diary. The notes that he's recorded of his miserable and worthless life. If his past self reads these notes, he would definitely understand the desperateness of the situation and safe Roxy. Because Rudeus knows that he is someone who wouldn't chance the risk of his family, these ominous notes will surely make his past self take actions.

The second, one that is least likely to be used correctly, is a scroll that he's put many month's worth of effort into. A scroll that activates this world's first and only God Class Healing spell. Taken from the God Class Detoxification spell that Cliff gave his life to get for Rudeus, the God Class Healing Spell is a step up even from that. The cure of all disease but death elixir. The thing that he's created too little of too late. The thing that couldn't save anyone he cherished. For this very reason, it's the one he held the least hope on.

The third is a simple message he's engraved on his left arm. Should the first two not make it to the past but he himself does, his past self will inevitably see this message. The message is a pseudo-curse he's designed for that specific reason, to make- to compel- himself to read it. The message being a single line of his simplified God Class Detoxification Spell, one that will be able to cure the Magic Stone Disease, and a note to never trust Hitogami. If his past self ever find his current self's corpse, the message will pass along.

Rudeus looks at the three things he's prepared for his past self should his current self fail to time skip properly. Nodding in wary satisfaction, he puts the journal into the folds of his tattered robes and slides the scroll into the pocket slot of his pants. He stands up and grab the staff sitting next to him, the remodeled Aqua Heartia made to work well with his magic armor.

He walks up to the circle that he's prepared days before and double checks his work for the twentieth time. It was perfectly drawn to the best of his capabilities. This was as good as it can be for something that's his work. Had he more time and support, this would be far better than the circle he's staring at now. He doesn't though, and this is all that he's got.

He scowls at it. This is all that his research has led to; a bastardized magic circle that barely counts as a receptor to magic. Cliff would have made one with better functioning. Zanoba would drawn it better. Sylphy and Roxy would've made the cirlce more operational. Hell, Eris probably wouldn't have needed to make this to begin with. This was all he could do. It wasn't perfect. It didn't need to be though, it just needed to work.

Rudeus step into the middle of the circle and look at his surroundings one last time, taking in the image of it into his mind, should it be the last thing he sees. He engraved the environment into his mind, the setting of the basement of his abandoned home. The one that he's bought and lived in with Sylphy and Roxy. The house that held so much of his happiest memories.

He closes his eyes and breathes deeply. He opens them again and touch his journal for a different purpose while channeling the magic within his core. The magic circle reacts to the action and savagely rips the magic from him as well as the environment; making it so that it can fuel itself for the purpose he made it for.

He feels the magic rips itself from his body and transfer into the circle. He allowed it to go. He pushes it to go. He pours himself into the circle until he feels the fatigue of mana exhaustion drying his store and continues even after that point. It was working, he can feel it. The space distorts before his vision, showing a cross image of his house's basement and the back of a young man; his younger self.

His younger self was walking towards the door, away from him.

He continues to allow the magic circle to pull from him to function. The distortion becomes bigger, the back becomes clearer. Aqua Heartia breaks within his grip and disappears from his hand. His stomach churns as he unreservedly glare at the back.

His past self pauses and turn around with a questioning look in his mismatched eyes. Rudeus lets out a strained breath. Yes, that naive face, those innocent looking eyes, that youthful expression that should've disappeared long ago, it was the face of himself, the face of the younger Rudeus Greyrat.

His younger self frowns noticeably and shrugs before turning back to the door. As he open that door, Rudeus panics. He pushes at the boundary of the magic circle, pushing everything he had, not caring for what it was that he was giving to the circle. His body screams for a moment, fire burns in the pits of his stomach, pain laced his being and he nearly screams aloud.

Then it suddenly stops. The blurring stops, the pain stops, everything stops. Rudeus stares at the back of his pass self. He stares at the previously blurry back, now as clear as his vision allowed for. He sees every detail; every piece of hair, every fold of clothes, every shadow pronounced by the fading sunlight.

"There!... Eh?""

He watches his past self energetically turns around again. There was a look of self-derision on the younger man's face, as if he was telling himself something on the line of, "there's no way." The look of self doubt quickly turns into a look of surprise when his future self enter his vision. Rudeus didn't feel any fluctuation in the air so he had doubted that he succeeded at all. Seeing his past self's face, a gobsmacked face filled with bewilderment, answered the silent question he gave himself.

"I... succeeded?..."

Rudeus pull his eyes off of his past self to look at the where they are. He recognize the room with some effort from his mental department. He's in the room that's been usurped for his use only, his so called office. Looking at the mundane room, Rudeus is filled with a lighthearted feeling. This room, in his more recent memory, was a mess. With holes in the walls, a gaping and missing ceiling and spiderwebs laced in every corner, it thoroughly fulfilled the role of being part of an abandoned house.

He moves a bit to get a closer look and stops immediately when an unfamiliar pain lances through him. Pulling his hand to touch the pained area, he knowingly retracts his earlier happiness.

"No... I failed. There was no way I could succeed..."

That's right. Rudeus scolds himself. Rudeus is Rudeus, the man who've built up enough bad karma to allow for an eternal stay in hell. Why would he be able to succeed? He had mused earlier that he's destined to fail, why would that change now. Standing in front of him, his past self stutters out

"Who...who are you? Unless... Hitogami?"

The mention of that name wells Rudeus with energy he didn't know he still had. His eyes sharply goes back to the form of his past self. The younger man flinches at the hatred Rudeus is currently feeling.

"No."

Rudeus states this with a bitter edge to his voice. His glare shifts from his past self to the opened door. Rudeus' objectives, his consistency plans, returns to the forefront of his mind. The scroll in his pocket becomes suddenly heavier. The journal weighs at him. His left arm tingles. He points a finger at the opened door and closes it with an untraceable gust of wind. His past self flinches again at the sudden noise resulting in the door closing and fearfully looks at him.

"Don't go to the basement. You've been deceived by Hitogami."

"Eh?"

His past self takes a moment to digest the spoken words and responds cautiously. There was a look of calculation in his eyes. A glint of him trying to understand who he's talking to.

"Wait, before that, who are you? Where did you come from?"

"I am..."

Rudeus makes to say that he was a future him, someone from a time far away, but he pauses. He knows that his past self is of the wary types. There's no way this kind of explanation would just be accepted at face value. No, Rudeus has to start with something shocking, something that he's sure will garner his past self's attention.

"My name is '────'"

Rudeus speaks out their mutual name. The name that the both of them mutually agreed to put away for the rest of their life. His past self widens his eyes again in shock. Seeing this, Rudeus continues on to hit the nail in.

"I come from the future."

The gears in his past self clicks in an attempt to understand. Rudeus stays silent for his past self to connect the dots he's set up for himself. There's no doubt that the younger man noticed things; his similar looks, his claims and many other things.

"You're... you're saying you're the future me?

"Yes. I am you from about 50 years later."

Seeing his past self being more consensual to the idea of them being the same person, Rudeus speaks quickly while remembering the important things that he's regretted so that he can convey them to his past self.

"Sorry, but I don't have the leisure to explain to you the principles of time traveling magic."

"When you say you don't have the leisure to explain..."

Rudeus pauses for a moment at his past self's reply. A smile tugs itself at his lips. The smile dies swiftly at the seriousness of the situation.

"Sorry for the Hollywood movie-like words, but I really don't have time. Listen to me. There is nothing useful in the basement."

Rudeus makes a decisive declaration that made his pass self nod unconsciously.

"I went to the basement myself, and thought there was nothing. The next day, I heard the words, "If there was nothing, then that's good" from Hitogami, and felt reassured. But that was a mistake. I can explain it now."

Rudeus takes a moment of halt to fully organize his thoughts, pulling from long hidden memories.

"Listen, most likely, there's a mouse in the basement. A sick mouse. Its peculiar feature ought to be teeth like violet magic stones. I don't know where that mouse came from or when it entered there. Most likely, one from the demon continent or the sky fortress slipped into some luggage. That doesn't matter. The mouse was frightened by you, and ran away to the kitchen. It then scavenges through leftovers of yesterday's meal, has died the next day, and gets disposed of by Aisha."

"..."

Rudeus notes that his past self is drifting off and so, he begins poaching on the topic that will garner his past self's full attention.

"Those leftovers are given to a stray cat the next day, and disappear. But before that happens, a hungry Roxy goes down the stairs, and picks a little at those leftovers. As a result, she's infected with that mouse's disease."

His past self, to Rudeus' expectation, does indeed give him his concentrated attention at the mention of Roxy being in danger.

"Roxy gets sick?"

"Magic stone disease."

His past self scrunches his eyebrow at the familiar sounding name. Rudeus advances on with his story. The missing stomach is finally making itself known to his conscious health and he can feel his body practically failing him. The scroll in his trouser's pocket becomes heavier.

"I didn't realize it at first. After all, magic stone disease is extremely rare. That virus dwells inside the body, and is only capable of infecting the other life within it."

"The other life?"

"That's right, a fetus. Only pregnant women can contract that illness. I did research later on and was shocked."

"Eh? No, but, Roxy is still-"

"She should be pregnant. But enough of that, you did the deed so isn't that natural?"

His past self somehow finds it in himself to blush a bit despite the matter of topic. Rudeus decides to give a short explanation about the cause of the disease, in case his past self ever comes across another similar case. Hitogami isn't the type to give up if he fails once.

"Mice are carriers for magic stone disease, because a portion of them have resistance to it. You can identify a carrier at a glance, because their teeth have become violet crystal. And the illness spreads to what the mouse bites on. It only infects orally, and the virus doesn't persist for very long. It disappears after around a day at most, and the infection rate is low, and those infected are only fetuses inside pregnant women."

"..."

"The virus grows inside the fetus, proceeds to remold the fetus, and then turns the mother's body into magic stone."

The blush on his past self dies as he makes the connection. Rudeus states it aloud for him anyways.

"If you were to thoughtlessly go to the basement right now and let the mouse out, the next day you'll hear Aisha idly grumble [I found a weird dead mouse this morning], two weeks later you'll be told [A cat infected with magic stone disease was discovered], and right after that Roxy will come down with a fever. And it will be 30 years later before you connect everything together."

"...What happens to Roxy?"

"She dies."

It was a statement that made his past self lose his words.

"Roxy gets a fever and becomes bedridden... You'll understand that it's magic stone disease once you see her feet start to turn to magic stone, but..."

"It didn't get healed? I tried to heal it, didn't I?"

At his past self's remark, Rudeus sadly looks down at his left arm. The arm where the God Rank Detoxification spell lies engraved on his flesh. Too little too late.

"I tried to save her no matter what by going to the holy country of Milis, and succeeded in obtaining the chant for god ranked detoxification magic, but... A lot happened on the way, and it took time. By the time I returned it was too late, half of Roxy's body was crystallized, and she had died."

Rudeus looks back up at his past self and stares at the younger man in the eyes. Making his voice firm, he clearly states again the opinion that his past self should share.

"Don't be misled by the words of Hitogami. If it's you who has knowledge of the previous world, you should understand that much. That guy is the source of every kind of evil; the last boss."

"But, why did he do that to Roxy?"

Rudeus' eyes narrow at the question.

"I don't know. Even now. But it should be certain that he's acting with some kind of objective in mind. At the very end, he said that himself... [Thanks to you being an idiot, things have proceeded to my satisfaction.] ...Shit."

The pit that is his stomach lurches when he became aggravated. Rudeus bites the inside of his cheek and focus on something that's not his anger.

"Orsted or Laplace might know something about Hitogami's goal.. But I haven't met either of them for the past 50 years. Most likely, you won't be able to meet them either, even if you search for them."

"Nanahoshi didn't know where Orsted was?"

Rudeus' face falls momentarily. The face of a Japanese youth appears from the crevice of his mind. Nanahoshi, a name he's not heard for a long time.

"I didn't ask her, but certainly in this current era, it could be worth asking her. Even if she doesn't know where he is, she also thinks a lot about these kinds of things. She might come up with some kind of good idea."

Rudeus edges around the topic and suggests something that might aid his past self. The younger man notices the avoidance and points it out.

"...What happened to Nanahoshi?"

"..."

He stays silent for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell his past self of another folly that he's made. Looking at his hands again, he softly says

"At the very end, she failed. And then became depressed, and I failed to support her... And then..."

"I got it. Enough of that."

"Yeah, I don't want to talk about it either."

Thankfully, his past self is starting to understand that the future is not a bright place and stops the conversation before it got anymore unpleasant. Rudeus recollects himself and continues on to advice his past self about whatever he thinks the younger man will need to know.

"Listen. You'll learn about this around 10 years from now too, but... Hitogami isn't called Hitogami in this world."

"...What do you mean?"

"The God of Humans, written as Human God. There's nobody who doesn't know the name Human God, but only those who've met him directly know the term Hitogami. I don't know why he did something like that... Maybe just to toy with the people who know it."

His past self's eyes lights up in understanding. Rudeus complements himself for catching on so quickly. Then again, the trauma caused by their first meeting with Orsted, and the reason that meeting turned sour, is not something very forgettable.

"At a glance, that guy seemed to only speak about things that were for my sake. Even now, up to this moment, he hasn't told a lie. No lie that I can perceive."

Rudeus begins to describe his impression of Hitogami, so as to give his past self a better picture.

"Each and every thing has been for the sake of this one time, so that the suspicious you would obey him without hesitating at this moment! Don't be tricked! You read it in manga, didn't you? Someone who talks about believing and not believing is definitely lying!"

Sparks fly about as Rudeus remembers more and more about the reasons he wants Hitogami dead. His past self takes a step back with a look of doubt beginning to cast itself into his eyes as Rudeus starts speaking manically.

"Well, I know that, but..."

"You don't understand. After Roxy is Sylphy. Heartbroken from losing Roxy, for a little while you'll stop thinking about Sylphy. Sylphy will be hurt and be in low spirits. That guy will manipulate Luke and take advantage of that."

Rudeus decides to drop the next bomb. His past self needs to have that doubt crushed. He needs not have any amount of trust on the Hitogami.

"Luke?"

"Yeah, later on you'll hear from a woman who kept Luke's company at the time, [When he woke up the next morning, Luke acted flustered and started talking about how he'd heard an oracle from God or something.]"

"And then... what happens?"

"Luke gives advice to Ariel, and Sylphy abandons me and goes to Asura. Together with Ariel who failed to get Perugius's favor! From an inferior position, Ariel starts an internal revolt, and loses. Sylphy is killed in battle."

The line is spoken and his past self falls back into silent contemplation.

"You lose those two."

After a moment, his past self speaks, stating the obvious truth in silent, dreadful understanding. He understood, it wasn't just "you", it could very well be "us".

"Yeah, even now that guy's voice when he revealed his tricks lingers in my ears. [You've done well], the feeling of having my shoulder clapped, and that shrill laughing voice... Shit, fucking hell!"

The memory of his final meeting with the Hitogami pops up in his mind. His anger spikes and his fist punches the table. The impact barely did anything and Rudeus' sudden outburst recoils at his body as another spike of pain; this one being the strongest burst so far. He lets out a pained breath.

"So I'm out of time... But even if I say this, you probably don't know what you should do."

Speaks half to himself and half to his past self. The younger man looks at him with perplexed worry. It looks like his condition is starting to make itself known physically. Rudeus sucks in a deep breath and tries to ignore the pain in his guts.

"First of all, hmm, Eris... I want you to write and send her a letter immediately. Say [Well, I've been a bit unfaithful, but I love you.]"

"I don't love her. It's because of her that I became impotent."

His past self scowls at the tall order and Rudeus smiles in self-derision.

"Forgive her. You're a man, aren't you?"

"..."

"...Though I said that, I ended up not forgiving her, and was antagonistic with her for years."

"Antagonistic?"

"Time and time again, I was almost killed by Eris. She would chase me no matter where I went, and every time she found me, it would turn into a no-holds-barred battle. Well, she took it easy on me. If she wanted to, there were plenty of ways to kill me. She would make sure never to pick a fight where she'd kill me. On the contrary, if I was ever in a crisis, she'd save me from the shadows. Almost like Vegeta."

His past self puzzles at the future love hate relationship that would go on if he didn't apologize. Rudeus scornfully laughs at himself. He didn't understand the truest sense of their relationship either; not until it was too late to fix anyways.

"Well, she's different from the prince of the vegetable nation. She just wanted to be by my side. She had always loved me. She loved me and did her very best for me... But she's bad at expressing herself, and didn't know what she should do, so the only thing she was able to do was hit me."

Rudeus nostalgically recalls all of his meetings with the redheaded girl. It came to him easily, despite the years that have passed by in the interim. His past self makes a complicated face as if to say that he didn't want to do it.

"But Slyphy and Roxy..."

"Not a problem. Sylphy's tolerant about that kind of thing, and Roxy doesn't think that she suits me, so she'll allow it. Even Eris, if you give her an explanation in advance, will agree. Oh, but prepare to get hit. Because she's that kind of woman."

"Even if you say that..."

"Protect all of the women who say they love you. Isn't that nice? What's wrong with that? A man should be reliable."

"Don't say it like it's somebody else's problem."

Rudeus laughs inside his head. It is someone else's problem; his past self's problem. It is not Rudeus' problem anymore because...

"I'm saying it because I was left with no one."

"I have a responsibility toward Sylphy and Roxy..."

His past self continues to use Sylphy and Roxy as an excuse to not interact with Eris. Rudeus huffs lightly and look at the younger man. Did he not understand where the tale between their relationship ended? Was he really dense enough to not understand the implications?

"If you're talking about responsibility, you have one toward Eris too. She's been persevering for your sake the whole time. She's a poor talker so it didn't get through to you, but the whole time. If you don't take responsibility for her, what about all her effort?... You'll be condemned by Ghyslaine. In front of Eris's body."

His past self gives him a look of dismay. So now he gets it.

"Eris... dies too...?"

"Yeah, to cover me. If I remember right... That was when I had a rematch with Atofe. A serious Demon Lord was stronger than I thought, and I let my guard down."

His past self's look of dismay turns into a look of bewilderment; as if to say "are you insane?" Rudeus agrees with the unspoken thought, to lower his guard to a demon king when he was only at that level, he was being stupid.

"Listen, you must send a letter. If you don't want to regret it... If you do it now, it should barely make it there in time."

"Ah, aah, well, if you say that, I'll send it. But, where do I send it?"

His past self is not quite meeting his eyes when he said this. Rudeus glares the younger man into looking at him properly.

"The Holy Land of Swords. You should have had some suspicions, right?"

His past self continues to give him a troubled look. After some deliberation his past self gives in to his demand.

"Got it."

"Don't write it like you're pushing her away. If Eris despairs, you'll be killed."

"I know."

Seeing his past self reluctantly agreeing to his advice, Rudeus lets out another pained breath. He digs his brain to see if there's any other advice he can give his younger self before he expires. Unwillingly, he remembers the most important one.

"Also, I forgot to say something important. Don't oppose Hitogami."

"'Don't oppose'? He deceived you, didn't he?"

"Yeah. But you can't win against Hitogami. I couldn't win against him. Someone like me couldn't arrive at the place where Hitogami is. When I realized that, I trembled. I couldn't even avenge Roxy and Sylphy. I worked this hard to defeat him, but I can't even reach him. I can even manipulate gravity, but he won't come within the reach of my hand."

Rudeus points at the inkwell on the desk that he's sitting at. Following his will, it floats up into the air and falls after a moment.

"I can float in the air and communicate with others over long distances. I regenerated my arm. Not to mention I can even jump through time and fly to the past... Well, this magic is a failure, though."

Sighing aloud, Rudeus looks back at his life's worth of work.

"You probably vaguely sensed it already, but what's called magic in this world is omnipotent. Once you realize that, you can essentially do anything."

In the end, understanding this still didn't allow him to do anything properly.

"But this power no longer means anything. I was too late. When I became strong, there wasn't a single person left I wanted to protect."

Even now, he can't do anything. With all the power that he's accumulated, he sits here dying. The scroll in his pocket finally weighted enough for him to take notice of it. He considers using it but, decides that he's better off not. He's a dying man, a hopeless person who's failed everything that believed in him. It's better that he ends his story here, making one difference.

"Listen, I'll say it again. I hate Hitogami but I can't beat him. There's no way to. I don't have the technique to arrive at his place. In the era I live in, the thing that's necessary to reach Hitogami's location does not exist. So don't fight with him. I don't know what his goal is, but it's fine if you even act servile, just don't oppose him. You'll just get done in by him, with everything still going as he wants. In which case, right now, before anyone's died..."

His body begins shaking uncontrollably. His hand, which was still pointing at the inkwell, falls sluggishly to his side and his vision starts blurring. Rudeus looks up at the ceiling and keeps going with his speech.

"There are three things you should do; consult with Nanahoshi, send a letter to Eris, doubt Hitogami, but don't oppose him. That's all."

With a rough summary, he closes his mouth.

"..."

His past self continues to stay silent even after he finishes. He recalls his old habit of waiting for orders til the very end. It was a bad habit that he quickly got rid of when he had his last conversation with Hitogami.

"Y-You don't have any more concrete advice or anything?"

As if to affirm it, his past self shows his reliance by asking for more help, more details. He smiles lightly and looks up to the night sky; or the ceiling now, seeing as this version of the house is not missing a roof.

"How nostalgic. Come to think of it, the me of this era was quite a slacker... Well, of course, I'd like to teach you more details about various things, but... We're out of time."

"You've been saying you don't have time, you're out of time, etcetera, for a while now. Is a late night anime starting or something?"

Rudeus looks back down from the ceiling to stare at his past self in the eyes. He sees the young man with a lost expression.

"No... It's ending. By the way, don't depend on other people so much. When you first came to this world, in the early days, you didn't merely rely on other people, did you...?"

A sharp squeeze of his stomach muscle drains him of his consciousness for a scant second. His vision momentarily darkens before he forcibly open his eyes to return his sight to its blurry, failing self.

"You... will lead a different life than I did. Just as you always have, you'll have successes, you'll have failures, you'll have times you reflect, and you'll have times you regret."

Rudeus makes an attempt to get up from his seat but keels over almost immediately. His limbs held no strength in them to hold him. His past self rushes over to help him and give him a shoulder. Judging from the alarm in his past self's eyes, he concluded that the younger man knew what was happening.

The quote "the only one you can rely on is yourself" pops up to the forefront of Rudeus' mind as he continues to smile at the irony of the situation. He pulls himself closer so that he could simply hand the journal and scroll to his younger self. Thankfully, his failing limbs allowed the action.

"I... don't think that, because I came from the future, I'll be able to recover from my mistakes. This magic is a failure... There should be no do-overs in human life..."

Rudeus pulls out the journal and the scroll from his robe and pocket before weakly handing it to his past self.

"I jumped with the diary as a point of origin... so I brought it... What I've experienced is written in it... Do your best... so that you don't have regrets... Don't become like me, and have that guy laugh at you... please..."

His past self was too shock at what's happening to coherently take the offering. The journal and scroll falls to the ground as a result. His past self follows the fall of the two items and catches sight of the reason for his currently dying self.

"What's... with that body...?"

"Hah, it was... incomplete... My past teleportation... wasn't able to... take my... entire body..."

"Eh, but, earlier, you said you could regrow an arm..."

"I don't have any more mana... Sorry... If only Cliff was alive, the past teleportation would've been better able to... a little more, here, information for you..."

"...I'm sorry, it's okay, so don't speak."

"...I brought three things to help you... the first is the journal... Read it and learn from my failure... The second is a message in my left arm... the God Rank Detoxification spell... The third... the scroll, give it to Cliff... so that he can remake the... God Rank Healing spell... use it well..."

Rudeus releases another labored breath. He mirthlessly thought that it would be his last. His younger self says something, but he couldn't hear it.

"...You... have regret... as Hitogami wants... why in a place like this... what I should say... I came to the past, so at least a glance..."

His Demon Eye of Foresight involuntary activates and show him a taste of what he was hoping to see all along.

"Aah, Sylphy, Roxy... Damn, you sure are cute as ever..."

A single tear falls from his eye as his vision darkens again. This time, he allows for himself to blissfully fall asleep. His past self says something to him again but he did not answer. His last thought before he fully lost his senses was an apology.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ＼\\('0')/／ ︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

The man who called himself my future self slumps into my shoulder and I yell at him to stay awake. He starts mumbling something about regret as he stares at the door, his eyes glazing over.

I can tell that he's dying. I dig my brain for a way to safe him and my eyes glance by the scroll he dropped. It was the scroll that he told me to give to Cliff; the scroll that could be used to recreate a God Rank Healing spell.

I hastily sit him to the ground, leaning against the table and pull the scroll into my hand. When I open it, my eyes catch a glimpse of an impossibly complicated looking design. From top to bottom and everything in between, the pages are filled to the brim with ink.

My brain took a moment to process it and I realize that this is a magic scroll.

I ask the man how to use it immediately after realizing what it is. He didn't answer and instead continues to mumble something incomprehensible.

I click my tongue and push the scroll against his chest before pouring my mana into it.

I'm not sure how it worked but the scroll operated like a magic chant and drew my mana to cast the magic. A soft glow appears to surround the man's body as a small tear leaves his eyes.

Promptly, the man's stomach, a hollow void of a thing, beings to fill up. His skin color begins to show signs of becoming normal again and under my hand, I feel a faint but definite heartbeat.

Seeing that what I'm doing is working, I continue to pour mana into the scroll until it couldn't take in any more.

"Rudi, I heard some kind of voice and sounds. Is someone there?"

"Is it a thief?"

My heart skips a beat when I hear Roxy's and Sylphy's voice coming from the other side of the door. The door knobs squeaks as one of them turn it to open the door.

I quickly debated about letting them see this scene and decide against it. I swiftly stride up to the door as the doorknob clicks and hold it close.

"No, I'm sorry. I was half asleep. I saw a weird dream and ended up using magic. Looks like I woke you two up, I'm sorry."

I hurriedly make an excuse to give them. The door is pushed against my hand for a moment as one of the two, Roxy or Sylphy, tries to open the door. The pushing stops when they hear my voice.

"A dream that made you use magic while half asleep... I heard something like a shout too, is everything okay? If it's tough, should we sleep together? I mean, grandmother said [Human warmth is the best when you want to forget something painful]..."

Sylphy's worried voice speaks up from behind the close door. I swell a bit with happiness at her concern but tell her with a forcibly steadied and casual tone,

"No, it's fine. I'd probably do something lewd, after all. Sylphy's not back to her normal condition yet, right?"

Sylphy's face is probably marred with worry right now. I want to go out there and take up her offer but I've decided that the dying man before me is more important. Letting them know about him now... I'm not sure what will happen. I will make plans later when I get time to myself but for now, I'll just do this.

"If you say it's really, really tough, I don't mind, but... No, but recently I've been thinking that it's possible, so if you can I'd rather you just limit it to touching..."

Roxy speaks up afterwards, offering herself to me. I bite my lower lip at the suggestion and turn her down as well. My heart cries in my chest but I steadfastly continue on the path I've chosen. In the back of my mind, I recall the man saying that Roxy is pregnant. Perhaps that's the reason she seems so sickly these past few days.

"...I'm really fine, so you two can return to bed. I'm going to sleep too, after tidying up the room."

The two stay silent for a stretched moment after I say this.

"If Rudi says that, I'll do so, but... If it's not all right, tell me, okay?"

"We are married, so please don't be reserved. Well then, goodnight."

After a while, they say this and return to their rooms. I keep my hand against the door and listen to their footsteps; all the way until they've gone up the stairs and out of my hearing range.

I take a look back at the man and see that the light of the scroll is dimming down to a dull glow. I quickly make it to his side and take hold of the scroll; preparing to pour more mana into it just in case the previous intake wasn't enough.

The worry becomes an unneeded one since the man's visage is as healthy as it can be. The scroll slides off of the man's chest and into my hands. Its texture is dry, almost brittle.

I look at the scroll in my hand and blink in surprise when I see that it is literally falling apart. As if it is an ancient parchment, the scroll slowly turns to dust in my hand. After a minute, the scroll fades into nothingness, leaving only a dim ember that also disappears with within seconds.

I stare at my hand and hope that the scroll wasn't something the old man couldn't reproduce.

I turn my gaze back to the older me and see that he's sleeping peacefully now. The healing light that encircled him is gone like the scroll and the only thing that marked its existence is the healthy man in front of me.

The man is breathing lightly. His sleeping face makes him look like he's lost at least a decade of age.

The wrinkles that were prominent during our conversation has been wiped off of him and the similarities between us becomes easier to see. Looking at his almost peaceful face, I am reminded of Paul.

I take a deep breath and perk my ears again to hear if Roxy or Sylphy is still around. Hearing nothing, I walk towards and open the door to stick my head out to see. Fully activating my eye of foresight, I look into the future and see ahead by a few minutes; nobody shows up in my vision, not a shadow nor a blur.

I return to the man and put the journal onto the table before leaning him up to my shoulder. Giving a huff of effort as I pull him up, I walk out the room and begin to drag him into the open guest room upstairs. I'm at the risk of having Roxy and Sylphy seeing me so I minimize all sound with a wind spell and continue to leave my eye of foresight operational to allow me to see a few minutes ahead.

After what feels like an hour of effort, I manage to lay the man on to the guest room's bed. Throughout the whole trip, he stayed completely comatose and didn't do anything but breath to show that he's alive. Seeing nothing change as he lays in the bed, I decide to leave him there.

I walk out the room, careful to close the door noiselessly, and go back downstairs. This time, I take the stairs down to the basement as well. Passing by my staff, I grab it just in case.

I pull out a light spirit scroll from my pocket and illuminate the stairway. As with the case of me sneaking around my future self, I have my eye of foresight fully activated.

I walk down the stairway in a slow and deliberate manner, making sure that I don't miss any details. After a few minutes' passing, I stand in front of the basement's doorway.

I put my hand against the door, preparing to push it, when the light spirit moves slightly. It attracts my attention towards a small portion of the floor where the layer of dust is unsettled by small footprints; a rat's footprint, if I had to guess.

The prints point towards going inside of the basement door but doesn't point out. I narrow my eyes and pull my hand away from the door.

Instead of opening it, I punch a hole into the door and stick my staff through it. My mind pulls out a picture of two magic melding to create a giant layer of flash freezing ice. The spell's sensation runs through me. My mana corresponds to my will and is sent through the staff. Out of habit, I say aloud

"Frost Nova."

Through the door, I sense a quick drop in temperature. Still, I didn't trust myself to be done with just that. Once again, I cast the spell and say for the second time

"Frost, Nova."

Permeating through the stairwell, the second layer of ice's temperature breaks through the door to rob everything in my vicinity of heat.

I withdraw my staff and send the light spirit through the hole so that I could get a good look. Peeking in, I can see nothing but ice. My eye of foresight tells me there is nothing that will move for the next couple of minutes.

I open the entrance, quickly come in and a close it behind me with an audible slam. I look around the ice covered room and make a brief inspection of the area to locate the mouse.

The creature was easy to spot. Laying dead frozen in a thick layer of ice near the hidden door to Roxy's shrine, I found it almost immediately.

A closer look confirms the man's only description of the rat; transparent, violet, magic stone-like teeth. I make a sharpened pole with earth magic and stab it into the ice to pierce the rat's skull.

I have no idea if killing it will make the magic stone virus die off as well but it's better safe than to be sorry.

I cut off the block of ice that surrounds the mouse's dead corpse and put the block into a container made from more earth magic.

I debate on whether or not to burn the corpse and decide that I'll leave it as is until the man wakes up. I leave the sealed container at near the room's entrance and encase it in another layer of ice.

Afterwards, I walk out of and lock the door, seal up the opened hole in the door and wall off the stairway to contain any trace of the virus. If the option wasn't a fire hazard to my family right now, I would've burned the attic down to the ground for safe measures; just out of precaution.

Following my quarantine of the basement, I return to my office/laboratory/something area. I feel more energetically restless than tired with my nerves being on high sting.

I close the office door quietly and make my way to my seat. I note the ink stain on the table and the burn mark caused by the man's fist.

I take a seat in the chair and remember the man's three advice; to talk to Nanahoshi about what I should do, to send a letter to Eris before it's too late and to never trust Hitogami.

With agitated feelings, I decide that I should write the letter to Eris now before things start to pick up when the man wakes up.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ＼\\('0')/／ ︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

"Mmhmmm!"

Waking up with a stiff neck, I stretch and satisfyingly pop a few creaky joints. I wipe off the stream of dried drool and look around me blearily.

I find myself still sitting in my office chair. There's a letter and many drafts of it taking up space on my desk. I take the educated guess to come up with the theory that I've fallen asleep writing the letter.

I pick up the finalized draft that I've decided on. It's a bare-bone message that can be sum up to saying I'm fine with accepting her. The contents of it will change greatly depending on the talk I'm planning to later have with Roxy, Sylphy and possibly my future self, if he's awake.

I involuntarily remember the older face of myself. I wonder if he's actually awake right now.

I push myself away from the desk and stand up to get out of the room so that I can check up on him. I may not know much about healing magic but I'm technically Saint Rank in it. If push comes to shove, I can do a good patchwork healing; not that I think I'd be much help if a self-proclaimed God Rank healing spell couldn't.

I gently close the door to my office as I leave after making note that it's still early in the morning. Just as gently as when I closed my door, I quietly make my way upstairs.

I round the corner of the stairs once I'm on the second floor to see that the reception room's door is slightly open. I promptly make my way to the open door and fully open it.

The room looks unchanged from how I've last seen it, with the exception of the old man. The now missing old man.

I walk up to the bed, with its sheets neatly folded and look at where I last left the man. There's not even a crumple on the blankets.

I look at the bed mildly perplexed and flip the blanket into the air. The man wasn't underneath it.

What was underneath it, though, is a note written in Japanese. A note with the simple quote, "I'll be back" and a little picture of a hand holding itself in a thumbs up position.

As if writing it in Japanese is not enough to convince me that this letter is from him, my future self includes a quote to pass his message along.

I sigh at the letter and fold it up to put into my pocket.

The door creaks behind me as I do so and I turn around to see a sleepy Aisha standing at the doorway.

"Brother? What are you doing in the guestroom?"

Covering a mouth gaping yawn, Aisha asks me sleepily. I can tell that she's been sleeping until just earlier since she's still wearing her nightgown and is rubbing her eyes to get the sleep out of it.

"I worked a bit too much in the office and decided to take a little nap. It looks like I slept in the wrong room."

"To work that much... Brother, you should take care of your health. If there's anything I can help you with, just tell me and it will be done."

Seeing Aisha's worry, I go up to her and pat her head. She allowed me to do it. Her bedhead and sleepy pacifism makes her strangely adorable when I compare her to her usual happy self.

"Don't worry, I know you and Lilia will always be there for me."

"Mnnn, you should go to your room to rest up. I'll clean up this room."

After a few moments, Aisha pulls away from me to pushes me towards my room.

I compliantly leave the guest room but as soon as she turns to make the bed, I sneak back to the stairway to get downstairs.

I nudge the letter in my pocket and remember the thing that he brought from the future to give to me; his journal, the recollection of his past. He said that I should read it so that I won't make the same mistakes he did.

I return to my office and lock the door before pulling the thickly banded book into my hands. Just looking at the many differently colored pages already tells me the rough time that the journal's gone through.

I take a seat at the table and open it to the first page. I begin reading the story of my future self.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ＼\\('0')/／ ︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

"Is something wrong, master Rudeus?"

"Hmm? Something wrong? There's nothing wrong. Why do you ask, Lilia?"

"You've been strangely restless since this morning. I was worried..."

"It's nothing much. Don't worry too much, Lilia. I'm just thinking of some things right now."

"Very well, master Rudeus. Why don't you take a seat, I'll make some tea."

"Yeah, thanks. Lilia."

"It is of no trouble."

Listening to my step-mother, I take a seat in the living room's couch after worrying the woman with my continuous shuffling. It's been three days since I've met my future self and two since I've learned of his depressing story. In those two days, I've brought myself closure for not getting Roxy killed, talked to Roxy and Sylphy about my possible marriage with Eris, finished reading the future diary and... talked to Hitogami.

The self proclaimed Human God made the conversation short. He admitted to having intentions of killing Roxy and he admitted that he did it not for my benefit but for his own.

To find out that my descendants are the cause of my and Hitogami's current anxiety is both a blessing and a curse. To be able to know that Hitogami will die one day and get his justice served, I feel that it's a blessing. To be able to know that Hitogami, the person who's seems to know everything, is an enemy, I feel that it's a curse. After reading of the downward spiral my future self went through, I only fear Hitogami more. That's why, when he gave me the ultimatum to either work for him or live in ruins, I would feel nervous.

Hitogami made the deal very simply. I only had to do one thing to keep my family safe from his wrath, kill the Dragon God Orsted. Hitogami gave me various reasons towards why killing the Dragon God is a good idea, saving the world, killing off an unknown menace, and other nonsense, but I sensed an underlying implication in the way he spoke. He didn't care for these reasons. This deal was for his sake alone, I have nothing to gain from it but the words of someone who admitted to lying to me once.

As of right now, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. The journal of my future self delved lightly on the topic of Dragon God Orsted; mainly that he came from the dragon clan long past and that they've developed many techniques to fighting against Hitogami for some reason.

If that is true, it makes even less sense for me to want to kill the man. Him taking out Hitogami would be a boon to me... if it wasn't for the cost that comes with losing my family. My future self said so himself, there's no way to reach Hitogami's domain, not in our shared lifetime. He advised me to listen to Hitogami for fear of losing our family again.

This brings me to the conclusion, I have to fight the Dragon God Orsted. I grimace at the option. Fight, this implies that I could actually match the superhuman who've killed me once already. I doubt I can even make him break a sweat. From my past self who've fought him to my current self, we're not that different.

Sure, I'm grown up and I have better handling with my magic but so what? What's a definite difference that will give me an edge over fighting the man? My saint rank spells in all magical category? The man brushed off an attack that a demon lord claimed was emperor class. My advanced rank mastery over swordsmanship? That's a good joke, the man brushed Ruijerd and Eris off like flies. My otherworldly knowledge? Sure, why don't I build a nation from scratch to go along with that. Facing reality, I have nothing to trump me over the man known as Dragon God Orsted. Even with the magic armor that I'm planning on making later to counter the Dragon God Orsted, I doubt I'd be able to stand much of a chance...

"I'm home~!"

Breaking apart my contemplation, Aisha opens the front door energetically and walks in with some grocery bags in hand.

"I'm back, Rudi."

Sylphy follows along in a less lively manner than my sister. She has a bag of grocery in her hands as well. I get up from my seat to come and help her.

"Welcome back, Madam Sylphy, Aisha. How was the shopping trip?"

As I take the heavy bag from Sylphy and get a thanks along the way, Lilia walks out of the kitchen with a crying Lucy in hand. Sylphy gives me a quick kiss on my cheek and goes to take our baby girl. I vaguely recall the two of them, Sylphy and Aisha mentioning that they were going to go shopping earlier this morning.

I look out the still opened door. The sun is considerably risen higher than earlier. It must be around late afternoon by now. I only sat down at early morning, did I really spend that much time thinking things?

"It was fine. Aisha really knew her way around the market and got us so many things for such a cheap price."

"Yup, we'll be eating good fish tonight!"

Carrying a happily smiling Lucy in hands, Sylphy makes small talk with Lilia while Aisha puts away the grocery she's procured. When she sees me walking in with the last bag, she proudly puffs out her chest and stand half an arm's length away from me. I got the message and pet her head while laying the last bag on to the counter.

"Rudi, you said that you were going to go to the Adventurer's Guild later right? Do you mind if I come along? I want to check up on a commission I've requested a few weeks ago."

"Adventuerer's Guild? Ah, yeah. I was planning on going sometime today."

Hearing Sylphy speak to me, I stop petting Aisha to let her get back to packing away the grocery and turn around. Sylphy is taping Lucy lightly while bouncing her up and down. It seems to calm my daughter down from whatever it was that was troubling her earlier.

"At around now would be good, actually. Let me get the letter."

Sylphy nods agreeably and hands a pacified Lucy back to Lilia. She then stands by the door and waits for me. I hurry to my office to get the letter I was planing on sending to Eris. I pull on my robe and take my staff into hand as well before leaving the room.

Together with Sylphy, I leave the house to do my business.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ＼\\('0')/／ ︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

"-The beasties in the plains are getting more and more aggressive each day I tell you-!"

"-Supposedly, there's a herb field being grown somewhere in the woods east of here-"

"-DRINK MORE, GI- GIVE ME ANOTHE-"

"Can I get seconds on this-?"

"-Excuses me, coming through, watch out there, buddy-"

"-There's nothing new on the board, did you even update this-?"

As always, the main hall of the Adventurer's Guild is loud and disruptive, giving off an energetic feel to it. My wife and I walk in, hand in hand, to the cacophony going at full blast.

Sylphy squeezes my hand and lets go after giving me a peck to my cheek to go to the commissions' desk. She's put up a request for some herbs collection and wanted go check up on it after hearing that someone took the quest.

I watch her go off for a second before turning to the direction I need to go towards; the carrier desk. Even if it will take a while, the Adventurer's Guild mailing system is the safest in this world to guaranty that the letter will make it to the person it's addressed to.

"-Ahh!"

On my way to the desk, I am pulled by the back of my robe and fall back into a seat at one of the occupied tables in the hall.

"You really need to be more wary of your surrounding. Even if this is a safe area, at least take a cautionary look around to see anything suspicious. You never know, there might be the criminal leaving out the other exit."

A baritone voice speaks casually to me as I fall into my seat. The tone tickles at my memory, telling me that I'd know who the voice belongs to if I were to see his face. I turn around in my seat just to do that.

"...I can't tell if that's proper advice or a quote that you've butchered into nonrecognition."

"It's been seventy years, I honestly can't remember much from that place even if I try. Take it as a good advice that'll help you in the long run."

I recognized him immediately when I saw his face; him, his mirthful eyes, his crooked smile, his white hair and all. It was my future self. He's dressed in an adventurer's casual fashion, now donning a new brown robe, a medium size iron sword and a magic staff with a decently sized mana stone in it. He's also shaved off that beard that covered everything under his nose. Thanks to that, he's also shaved a few years off of his physical appearance. His skin complexion is now a healthy tan compared to the sweaty pale gray that it was when I last saw him.

"So where have you been?"

"Traveling around to look up on things. I was planning on visiting the house later when everyone's asleep."

"Really? Why not when they're awake, you could just say that you're an uncle on dad's side or something. You look alike enough to make that claim."

"That's not the issue, it's just awkward for me to meet everyone right now... I'm still not sure how I feel about them being alive... well, besides being relieved, that is."

"That's a morbid way to say it."

Putting my original purpose for coming here on hold, I readjust and settle into the seat I was pulled into. He looks a bit put off with the topic at hand so I decide to not continue on with it.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Only killing time. As I said, I was going to come over to your house when it gets darker."

His shoulders slacks a bit and he puts up his left hand to order something from the nearby waitress. He didn't say a word but the woman seems to understand what he wants as she walks off after giving him a nod. My future self then takes a long drink from his cup before continuing on.

"I also took the precaution to make a few arrangements that might be to your advantage. It's not much but I think it'd help in the long run."

"You look like you're enjoying yourself. Meanwhile, I'm stressing out here, you know."

"What do you have to be stressing out about?"

"Hitogami."

"...What happened?"

With just one word, the conversation tilts on its head and all sense of casualness disappears. My future self puts aside the half eaten plates, the pints of beverages and clears the table. His mouth frowns as he gives me his full attention.

I tell him about what happened the last three days after he left the house. I tell him about my talk with Sylphy and Roxy, the letter I've written and was about to send, my meeting with Hitogami and my plans to take on Dragon God Orsted in exchange for keeping our family safe.

When I finish, I stay silent for my future self to process what I've just told him. He grimly looks down to his clenched fist and think thoughts that are unknown to me; all while whispering under his breath words that sounds vaguely like a curse. After a few scant seconds, he looks up and meets my eyes.

"That isn't going to work. It is impossible for either of us to kill Dragon God Orsted with our own hands."

His words hit me like a punch to my guts. Seeing him say these words that have been on the forefront of my mind in such a detached manner, it makes me squelch in my own powerlessness.

"As you've stated before, between now and the first time you've met him, you are still not a threat to the Dragon God. That is a matter of fact. Magic armor will not help either. I will tell you this now as another fact. Not even the original magic armor which I've borrowed the design of was a match for the Dragon God."

As if punctuating my weakness, he presses on.

"Around eighty or so years ago, a reclusive magician who gained the title of Fire Magic God disappeared from his home in the Begaritt Kingdom. If you go there now, the place where he used to live, you'll find a still flaming crater. It was also around this time that Dragon God Orsted first made an appearance as a title on the Seven Great World Power stones."

What exactly that meant, he left in the air for me to figure out. The message was clear though. If someone who was acknowledged as a God of magic rank couldn't survive, there's no chance in me being able to. I grit my teeth.

"Then... what am I supposed to do."

My future self narrows his eyes. His eyebrows scrunches in concentration and he mutters something under his breath. He clicks his tongue after a while and stands up.

"I have a few ideas that we can work with. I'll pull something on my end and you just keep going with that plan of yours on your end."

He reaches into his robe's and pull out a long parchment of paper. He spreads it out on the table and begins tracing over the surface with his index finger. Amazingly, the blank parchment becomes filled with paragraphs of words and diagrams of pictures of an armor.

"Talk to Nanahoshi and get her to contact Dragon God Orsted. Talk to Cliff and Zanoba to start making the magic armor. Distract Hitogami and make it look like you're following his request to kill the Dragon God."

Once the parchment is completely finished being filled, my future self rolls it up and thrusts it to me, forcing it into my hands.

"Here's a copy of my version of the magic armor. Give it to Cliff to improve on it. If Hitogami bothers to ask, just tell him that you've convinced me to go along with the "killing Orsted" scheme. He shouldn't know we're meeting now since I have this ring on so tell him that it's me specifically."

My future self picks up his staff and turns to leave. He pauses for a moment to contemplate something before reaching into his robe's pocket again. He pulls out a small bag and a piece of paper which he also hands to me.

"I'll send some people your way to make it look more genuine. Just stay with Sylphy and the rest and keep them safe. I'll do whatever is needed to be done otherwise for our part."

With that, he leaves me in my seat and swiftly exits the building. I take a minute to look at where he sat before turning my gaze down to the things he's left for me.

The diagram, like my first impression of it, is an overly complicated mess of words, measurements and drawings. It looks like my future self helpfully tried to insert an instructional guide on how to manually manufacture each part of the magic armor but I can tell, with how it's made, that he did the bulk of the work with magic.

The bag is just a little pouch which has some plants and seeds in it. The piece of paper, after a moment of deciphering, becomes understandable to me as a mission request from the very guild I'm sitting in. The requester is Sylphy.

The waitress from earlier comes back with two cups of drinks and a few plates of food. Upon seeing that my future self isn't around anymore, she puts on a troubled face and turns to me. I paid her the money needed and tipped her for my future self.

The drinks and dishes she brought were really delicious. As expected of my future self, he understands my taste perfectly.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ＼\\('0')/／ ︵ ┻━┻ ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

After sending the letter to Eris and turning in the quest to Sylphy at the Advanturer's Guild, something that earned me a loving smooch on my cheeks, I leave and make my way to the Sky Fortress. I separate from Sylphy again and go straight to Nanahoshi.

Meeting her while she's still in bed, I tell her the gist of what's happened the past few days from when I last talked to her. By the end of the narrative, she was rubbing her forehead. Ah, I guess she's still recovering from the Drine disease. Her color of her skin is still relatively pale, even if it's getting better. Perhaps I should've come later, huh?

"Are you sure that this is from your future self?"

While I'm peeling a fruit for her, she looks at me like I'm a pitiful child who's been duped. I can't blame her for having thinking something on that line. Even if we're both in another world, time travel still seems like a far-fetched idea. If she tells me that her future self came back in time to fix what's been wronged, I would skeptically question her as well.

"I'm sure that man was me."

"How are you so sure, the only prove you have is the notebook."

She sits up in her bed and props an extra pillow behind her back. He finish cutting the peeled fruit and hand her the less ugly slices. She accepts it.

"He also knew my real name and was able to use chantless magic as well as having an evil eye. The chances are pretty good that he's me-"

"-Or he could be an agent of the Human God."

While munching into the fruit slice, Nanahoshi says what I fear most. If that is true, it'd be a scary thing; what if Hitogami knows so much about me and my thought process that he can convince me of the most outlandish thing. The phrase "What if Hitogami" would probably plague me straight to my deathbed and I don't think I'll be able to trust anyone after that.

"...I think that now's a good time to mention that I've heard of the Human God as well."

"You've met him?"

"No, I heard of him from Orsted after he killed you. Not much, though, but enough to understand that he wants to kill him."

Nanahoshi thankfully changes the subject of the conversation to something else. She mentions the time of our first meeting. I gulp nervously when I recall the memory. My hand shifts to the phantom wound that is not there anymore.

"And he can't?"

"Yeah. Orsted mentioned that it was impossible for him to kill the Human God at the time."

"My future self also said something about that..."

If I remember correctly, he said that he couldn't go to Hitogami's place to fight. There was something about us not living in the right era.

"Speaking of your future self, was he the one who told you to consult me?"

"Yeah. He said you're the type of person think better in these situation."

"Hoh? Is that what he thinks of me? I guess he'd be the one to know, he supposedly has more experience."

A certain topic is reminded in my head. The ending fate of Nanahoshi in the future. I debate on whether I should tell her or not. After a second, I decide that she should know. If only so that she can prepare herself.

"I doubt it. He said that you failed in the very end and that he never talked to you again."

Nanahoshi's eyes open widely. She purses her lips a moment later and narrows her eyes.

"I... see."

"Sorry..."

"No, there's nothing to be sorry about. Since the beginning, there's always a chance that he is a fake and that this is a lie."

From the troubled look she's putting on her face, I doubt that she believes her own words.

"Anyways, he left a diary with you right?"

"Yeah. He said that he used this diary as his landmark to travel back in time."

I pull out the diary from my robe and shows it to her. She curiously look at the aged book and reaches for it. I made it easier by putting it on her laps. She flips through the first few pages then skip to the middle and grimaces.

"Your handwriting is sloppy."

"I was told that most of this was written when he was drunk."

It was more of an implication but whatever, gotta defend myself somehow.

"Mind if I read it?"

"Go ahead, it'll help me if you actually did."

"Then I'll borrow this for today. Come back tomorrow to get it."

"You plan to read it all tonight?"

"It's my specialty so of course."

Huh, I guess a student's specialty is reading after all.

"Well then, I'll go get some sleep in the meantime."

I get up from my seat and hands Nanahoshi the edible remains of the cut fruit. They might look ugly, but they're still edible. I doubt she's going to eat it though. It survived our conversation for this long.

"You look like you could use it."

"Yeah, well, I'll be counting on you."

"Leave it to me."

I walk out the door and closes it with the last thing I see of the room being Nanahoshi reading the diary. Her brow scrunches in concentration and I can only hope that she doesn't tire herself deciphering some nonsensical things my future self wrote.


End file.
